Subject: Re: Red-tailed hawk nabs a shorebird
Date: Apr 27 11:52:10 1998
From: "Rob Conway" - robin_conway at hotmail.com


Tweets,

There is a Red-tailed Hawk that is a resident of the area surrounding
the I405 SR900 intersection in Renton that takes both Mew Gulls and
pigeons on a regular basis. He surveys either from a light pole right
at the intersection or a tall tree (CUT DOWN LAST WEEK!!) nearby and
waits for a victim to settle on other light poles or the ground. I've
seen successful kills at least 8 times. A colleague told me that this
guy also gets Coots at Coulon Park on occasion while they are grazing
the lawns.

Good Birding

Rob Conway
Bellevue, WA

robin_conway at hotmail.com

>Date: Sun, 26 Apr 1998 23:13:23 -0700
>Reply-To: jhadle at halcyon.com
>From: Jane Hadley <jhadle at halcyon.com>
>To: Dear Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
>Subject: Red-tailed hawk nabs a shorebird
>
>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
>


______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com