Hello Tweeters --

My husband, Randy Robinson, and I saw something that struck us as
unusual on Saturday. We were watching a bunch of shorebirds (many
dowitchers, some dunlin and a few Western sandpipers) feeding on the
mudflats of the Palix River (in Pacific County), when suddenly we saw a
red-tailed hawk dive on them successfully from a nearby tree.

The hawk returned to a tree with the hapless shorebird in its talons. We
had a minute or two to study the hawk and its prey, but a crow sitting
just behind and above it finally harassed it enough to drive it away. We
were not able to determine which of the three species the hawk had
nabbed. We thought the prey was not big enough to be a dowitcher. My
guess is dunlin.

We assume the hawk is opportunistic and would eat whatever it could
catch. We are just not used to thinking that it could catch a shorebird.
Any thoughts on how unusual this is?

--
Jane Hadley http://www.halcyon.com/bbrown/farmlett.htm
jhadle at halcyon.com
Seattle, WA