Scott told of watching a redtail zooming in on roadside prey along I-
90 near Cle Elum. He saw it hit by a semi and found the traffic too
heavy to stop to check out the bird.

Obviously freeway edges have created marvelous (from a food
abundance standpoint) hunting areas for redtails. Once Clarice and
I were driving north on highway 16 near Bremerton when we saw a
redtail try to take off from the side of the freeway and get creamed
by a car. The car stopped, with the still living redtail clinging to its
undercarriage. We also stopped, and Clarice collected the bird.
We took it to a rehabber, and of course it died (compound fracture
in right wing)

What was interesting was the hawk was banded. When we
reported the number to BBL we found that the bird had been banded
nearby and had been collected once before, after having been hit by
a car, in about the same vicinity. The lab assumed the bird was
dead after its first run in, but apparently it survived to make the
same mistake at least one more time.

If you can safely stop for these collisions its worthwhile to do so, to
look for bands.

Jerry Broadus, PLS
Geometrix Surveying, Inc.
P.O. Box 249
Puyallup, WA. 98371