Charles Easterberg wrote:

> Once a few years ago I almost hit a sharpie with my car. The
> hawk was in such hot pursuit (1 foot off the fringillid's
> tail) that common sense had totally left it.

A friend of mine reported this about a Sparrowhawk he caught when
banding finches. The bird was about to be released, after banding,
when it saw a finch in the process of being banded. The hawk became
totally transfixed. One of the banders set the bird down on the
ground and it just stood there - eyes fixed on the finch, completely
motionless, though it was free to fly off.

Talk about extreme concentration !!

Stuart MacKay