On Sat, 19 Oct 1996, Martin Muller wrote:

[snip..]

> The male has a particularly scruffy look. To me it looks like someone took a
> wire brush and brushed most of his flight feathers the wrong way. This has
> been the same for several years, so I guess they're replaced that way. This
> doesn't appear to influence his flying abilities. As a matter of fact, this
> male hunts and catches Rock Doves in flight. His strategy is to circle around
> the Grain Terminal top, then swoop down below the roof line of the conveyor
> belt structures above the silos, zip around the corner to the other side and
> surprise pigeons congregated there. I've never actually seen the moment of
> impact, but I've seen him zip around the structure and come out with a
> struggling pigeon in his talons. I've seen this four times now. I've never
> seen him bite down in flight, he always lands on the on top of the offshore
> structure. Three times he shared the pigeon with the large adult female, even
> though it was mid-winter.
>

Martin--

Thanks for the redtail story...they've been my favorite bird since
I was a little kid..and their antics and accomplishments never
cease to amaze me..as slow as they are, one might think they're
not an effective gamehawk, but I have a friend in N. California
whose redtail hunted pheasants from a soar...she'd fold up
and come down like a gyr...
and I actually heard of a guy back east in Michigan somewhere
who said while he was sitting in a duck blind during hunting
season he saw a redtail stoop on flying ducks..he did say he
never saw one connect, but it tried a lot leading him to believe
she must have been successful with the technique at least some
of the time..
and finally, I also read an account in a magazine about,
a wild redtail that hung out at this guy's house in a rustic suburban
area would perch at the end of the day and the bird would life of the
roof scattering the pigeons..every time the pigeons would try to
settle in, the redtail would wait a couple of seconds for them to get
settled and then rise up off the roof enough to scatter the pigeons
and then sit back down again..it would keep this up until the pigeons
were so tired they were less wary and then she would select one and
dive on it..drag it over by his swimming pool and eat it at
leisure..

They are truly amazing....

Tom