Hi Tweets,

Jane Hadley writes:

>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?

Probably not that unusual.

Opportunistic is one word, versatile another; this is a species an
individual of which once won a contest in which various raptors were flown
at released pheasants, outperforming--if that is the term one would use in
this context--all the falcons and accipiters entered. This may not have been
a fair test if, as likely, the pheasants had been human-raised, but then
again, that's not the actual point of these things. It is also capable of
killing rabbits and quail in the wild as well as lethargically toppling onto
voles from fenceposts, so it's clearly got some jets.

I think, seeing them parked in a tree or pottering around doing lazy
sky-donuts, we get an impression they're lazy old sluggos when in fact
they're really capable, swift and strong hunters.

Michael Price A brave world, Sir,
Vancouver BC Canada full of religion, knavery, and change;
mprice at mindlink.net we shall shortly see better days.
Aphra Behn (1640-1689)