Wildlife Wednesday: The Hawk Has His Dinner
Warning: Video is not for the faint-hearted!
It is a dog-eat-dog world out there. It is also a hawk-eat-squirrel world!
There is a new nature path I have discovered in Delaware Park. Walking onto the path last night, around 5, I caught my breath.
There was this big bird in the middle of the path.
And it was eating something.
Yikes! You can tell pretty well that is a squirrel he is eating. Howard observes that nature is so cruel. Every animal, when it’s lunch time, has to go eat another animal. I was reading today that even chickens, if they are allowed, eat bugs and worms.
I am pretty sure the bird is some kind of hawk. I shall have to consult an ornithologist to make sure. My Seek App was having none of it. The bird was too well camouflaged against the path.
The Merlin app guessed it was a screech owl however I do not think it was. I have heard the call of the hawk from my house and I know from my walks through Forest Lawn that there are hawks in the area.
The hawk has this kind of faint wheezy call. Not what you would expect. I think I would expect a mighty caw, like a huge crow. But no.
It was really gross watching the hawk vivisect this squirrel, however I stood for quite a while watching him.
A while ago I had the honor of sitting near a hawk at Forest Lawn while the hawk had his lunch. Wow, that was over a year ago! I did not know so many months had passed. Haha … Howard was commenting on my experience then, too. I was just reading: “As Howard said later, you know that whatever he was eating had been having a nice day until he was lifted up by this hawk.”
That bird I filmed a year ago looks like this one. What if it were the exact same bird? Anyway, from that experience and this one I learn that hawks are pretty comfortable with me.
They are not comfortable with everyone or everything! That time a year ago and this one, I was struck by how the hawk was always looking up and around. He could not just enjoy his meal. He was concerned that some other bird or beast would want to move in on his kill.
Finally the hawk went and flew into a tree. He left the squirrel on the path. I took a look — I couldn’t help it — and he had left it lying there very neatly. You could not tell anything was wrong. All the gore was covered up. The squirrel’s eyes were open, otherwise he would have looked as if he were asleep.
Wild kingdom!