Subject: Re: Hot Pursuit
Date: Feb 8 15:37:13 1995
From: David Wilbur - dowilbur at u.washington.edu




On Wed, 8 Feb 1995, Charles Easterberg wrote:

> Once a few years ago I almost hit a sharpie with my car.

Charlie, that's a great story, reminds me of the time.....
On 520 heading west just before the floating bridge in moderately heavy
traffic at 55 mph, a Redtailed Hawk sailed out of a low perch on the
other side of the freeway, in a quick glide on its way to the shoulder
on our side of the street. By the time it crossed the median strip, the
brazen bird had dropped to level of traffic, miraculously threading its
way through 3 lanes of speeding cars and trucks, and nailed a rodent of
undetermined species in low grass on the side of the road. It never
flapped or banked at all, must have been sitting there for a long time
planning its trajectory and waiting for a break in rush-hour traffic to rush
home for a hot meal. I was very impressed by its ability to plan ahead
for an oncoming hole in traffic to line up with its intended prey.

David Wilbur