Young red-tailed hawks at Somme are often fun. They’re
relatively fearless, and they do goofy things on the way toward being a
grown-up. You can tell them from the adults by the lack of that deep red tail. But you can
also recognize them by their actions.
Lisa Culp was “sneaking up” to photograph one, when she
realized it just wasn’t much concerned about her. Suddenly it flew down and
landed in a nearby shallow puddle. It looked intently into the water, wading around
with splashes dripping off its legs. What was it seeing? It’s own handsome
reflection? Checking the puddle later, Lisa found no frogs, no animals of any
kind.Red-tail youth (above left) starts its ferocious dive |
For its next display
of inexperience,
the hawk decided
to hunt
ducks.
Adult red-tails
don't regularly try that,
and the youngster
showed us
why.
It first perched
over a pond
where mallards were swimming and repeatedly
swooped
down on them.
In each case
the ducks easily scooted out of the way with
startling splashes,
leaving a confused hawk,
again perched,
studying them,
and
trying again.
The ducks could
have flown away,
or just swum to
a
different part of the pond.
But no, they treated
the hawk as
a clueless nothing.
Male (left) and female (center) mallards watch as wet hawk (right) tries to get airborne again |
At one point,
the hawk actually dove at them such that it ended up stuck
down in the water of the pond
and had to go through
some gymnastics
to get itself airborne again.
The mallards hardly even
moved away.
After many tries
and much loss of energy
(to say nothing of
pride),
the red-tail returned to normalcy, surveyed the grassland,
pounced on a
mouse,
and perched on a dead limb to eat it.
“I had hoped for duck. Well, it’s
mouse again,” it seemed to say.
The hawk was learning
its own nature.
It's a pleasure having this handsome animal figuring out how to be itself at Somme Prairie Grove.
I want to say to it, "Little one. You're getting better and better. You'll have
that rich red tail and be a fine and full-grown hawk some day. You're doing great."
I hope we can all learn from our mistakes with dignity as well.
All photos taken by Lisa Culp on March 28, 2013 at Somme Prairie Grove
2 comments:
Do not mess with the ducks. Mess with the mice.
Amazing photos and writing! And a very cute hawk! Love them all!
Post a Comment