I live trap eastern Gray squirrels whenever they appear at my feeder and I take them down to the Stillwater to release. There are large fields surrounded with mostly deciduous trees, and I have never seen a native squirrel there. I often have seen both coyotes and hawks so I figure the squirrels I release move into the food chain eventually. Today, as I pulled into the edge of the field, there was a red-tail perched on a cottonwood just across the road. Hmmm, this should be interesting. I released the squirrel and turned to watch the hawk. The squirrel took off, bounding into the field and the hawk took off, swooped on it, missed the first attempt, did a nifty 270 degree turn about 3 feet off the ground, and swooped on the squirrel which made a leap of several feet, the hawk then made another fast tight turn and nailed the squirrel. Total elapsed time of the whole chase was maybe 10 seconds.

A second hawk, which was all the way across the field, came beating wings over to the action, and screamed and took a close pass to the hawk on the ground, talons lowered. The hawk on the squirrel ducked, then turned to face the other hawk as it turned back as if to make another pass. The hawk on the ground screamed, the hawk in the air screamed back but did not dive with talons out as before, instead it passed overhead and landed, maybe 6 feet from the hawk with the squirrel. The two hawks then did a stare down. After about a minute, I looked at my watch. These guys did not move, just STARED at each other for four more minutes. At this point a loud truck went by on the road and the second hawk, the one without the squirrel took off across the field. The victor wasted no more time, and began tearing at the squirrel. When it got to the intestines, I decided to leave. As I walked back to my car, the hawk screamed and I thought maybe the other hawk had come back. It did not, so I guess it was just saying, hey, lets do lunch again!

Rob Sandelin
Sky Valley Environments