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Date: | Sun, 11 Aug 2013 20:16:28 -0700 |
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Wow-I wonder if this is learned behavior or instinctive
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From: Alan Walter <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask]
Sent: Sunday, August 11, 2013 7:11 AM
Subject: Re: [Ohio-birds] Hawk drowns pigeon.
I had a very similar experience a decade ago. I posted the following
message to this listserv earlier this year but no one replied that they'd
witnessed similar behavior. Thanks for posting your observation because
now I know that there has been at least 1 other witness to this. Thanks.
In late April, 2003 I was outside at 8:30 PM which was just past dusk. I
heard a “screech, screech, screech” cry of terror coming through the front
yard and then saw a Coopers hawk with something in its talons flying about
5’ off the ground. It proceeded to fly down a stone path to a small,
shallow pond that I own and settled on the path about 3’ from the pond and
glowered. It had a robin and the robin is what was screeching. Even as
the hawk was sitting on the path, the screeching kept going. After about
5 seconds of that, the hawk lifted up off the ground and flew over the
pond about 2’ from the edge (5’ from where it had first lit).Â
It “hunched” it wings so they were only partially spread from its body.Â
It had its tail flared and its legs fully extended below its body with the
robin in its right talons. The hawk proceeded to let itself settle down
into the water until it sank deep enough that its wingtips were about 1”
into the water and its tail was starting to touch the water. The robin
quit squawking (since it was totally under water) and then the Coopers
hawk flew back to the stone sidewalk and sat there and glowered for about
10 seconds. The robin was totally silent at that point. Then the hawk
took off again and headed for my apple orchard where I’ve seen evidence of
past meals. The robin started screeching again as the pair disappeared
into the twilight.
SO the huge question is: What was the hawk doing?! Was it dunking the
bird to try to drown it? Was it dunking it to try to make it easier to
pluck? The hawk definitely had a methodical plan to its behavior and
really acted like this was not the first time that it had performed this
maneuver! Seeing that was the highlight my day, but I’d really like to
know what I witnessed!
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______________________________________________________________________
Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.
You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]
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