This Osprey (#1) on Lake Union careened around its desired mate (#2) for an hour, making pathetic keening noises all the while. As #1 approached #2, which was sitting on the light fixture to the right, #2 flew away. #1 didn't seem to notice the departure and approached the now empty light fixture with more keening and a courtship offering: a decapitated, bloody silver fish.
A more productive and better example of food-offering: an insistent black-capped chickadee fledgling being fed an insect by its parent on Capitol Hill.
And now...viscera! Entrails! Blood, guts, beak and gore. A juvenile Red-tailed Hawk with a just-killed meal. As I biked past a stand of cottonwoods I heard the hysterical alarm calls and protestations of robins, starlings, chickadees and crows. I knew this boded well for me and my camera (but not for the unfortunate victim and family) so I headed toward the ruckus. I'm pretty sure the kill is a robin nestling due to the dark grey feathers, size and length of legs.
And goodbye! The hawk was escorted off the premises by all species, including an Anna's Hummingbird.
2 comments:
Amazing shots--love the chickadee picture especially. It's always surprising how high-pitched the call of an osprey or a bald eagle is!
First off, I love your blog. Love. It. Secondly, I had the rare pleasure (a couple of years ago) of seeing a juvenile Cooper's Hawk finishing up a pigeon it had dispatched while sitting on the back deck of Caffe Fiore in "downtown" Ballard. We got a little video of it, before it grasped the carcass in its talons and literally flew over my head (the whole I was whispering, "Please don't drop it on me. Please don't."). Birds are so cool.
Post a Comment