Sucks to be the Squirrel
About the coolest thing I saw this week: I turn the corner around a building on campus to a long paved plaza. I see something moving to the right, and do a classic Python double-take at the ginormous hawk munching away on a squirrel. Or a freshly ex-squirrel as it were.
Man, this thing was impressive up close (about 8 feet away in this case). It was close to 2 feet tall. I'm guessing it was a very light morph of Red-Tailed Hawk--it was the right size (big big big) and shape, and had the red tail, but the head and belly were mostly all white. Very striking.
What was also interesting was its attitude. A lot of birds, suddenly confronted by a large mammal, would hop around nervously or fly off outright. Not this sucker. (S)he just kept on eating as I gawked, and the one or two times the bird looked my way I got the distinct impression I was being sized up for whether I might taste better than the squirrel.
Wow. Much cooler than the stray dogs that usually pass for wildlife hereabouts.
Man, this thing was impressive up close (about 8 feet away in this case). It was close to 2 feet tall. I'm guessing it was a very light morph of Red-Tailed Hawk--it was the right size (big big big) and shape, and had the red tail, but the head and belly were mostly all white. Very striking.
What was also interesting was its attitude. A lot of birds, suddenly confronted by a large mammal, would hop around nervously or fly off outright. Not this sucker. (S)he just kept on eating as I gawked, and the one or two times the bird looked my way I got the distinct impression I was being sized up for whether I might taste better than the squirrel.
Wow. Much cooler than the stray dogs that usually pass for wildlife hereabouts.
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