Red-tailed Hawk

You might have noticed an increased number of Red-Tailed Hawks  in your area lately. I certainly have, and I've taken advantage of their presence by subjecting them to what amounts to an invasion of their privacy.

The Red-Tailed Hawk is a raptor of a size between a crow and a goose. It weighs an average of 2 1/2 lbs. and has a wingspan of about four feet.

It has the capability of attacking and killing small pets weighing 5 lbs., so keep your dog, Fluffy, close at all times.

Trivia question for those of you who are MENSA members: "Why is the hawk called a Red-Tailed Hawk?"

      The hawk's talons have a gripping power of 200 PSI (pounds per square inch) and the talons are always on-duty, i.e., it has to relax its grip in order to open the claws, whereas humans have to tighten their grip in order to make a fist.

Note the three talons in front and one in rear. The rear talon is longer than the others and is used to pierce the prey and puncture organs.
  

The Red-Tailed Hawks seem to be everywhere in our area this season, and they sometimes include nesting pairs as shown in the photo at left, taken on Wauwatosa Road in Mequon.

          This photo speaks for itself.


















The next few images relate the story of an (apparently) juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk who hunted Easter weekend at our condo area. I sat in my car taking photos the entire weekend, taking advantage of the hawk's daily appearance near our retention ponds.

It looked to me like it was a young hawk, judging from its size and markings, but as you will see it didn't lack courage.

One morning, a noticeably larger hawk (possibility a parent) confronted our hero. Notice the difference in amount of markings on its chest.

Displaying its size, the intruder tried intimidation to no avail.

The larger hawk departed with a flourish, leaving our hero with an inflated opinion of its own power.

The next day, I watched the hawk fly quickly to our pond and attack something it spied along the bank. It surprised me because I didn't think Red-Tailed Hawks typically dove into water like eagles or ospreys.

Look closely and you'll see a black tail rise out of the water to the left of the hawk. The hawk struggled with this prey and my best guess was that it was a muskrat that lives in our pond.

In this photo, you'll see a dark object that seemed to be part of the prey and it's obvious that maybe our hero chose a lunch that refused to go quietly.

With bugles blaring to announce the arrival of the pond cavalry, our resident Canada Goose, Groucho, attacked the hawk, mistakenly assuming it was a threat to Gertie, the female goose sitting on its nest at the opposite end of the pond.

This signaled the end of the struggle for the hawk as it slowly made its way to the safety of the dry land.

Once it was on land, I noticed the blood on the right foot of our hunter. It walked around the area and sat for a while before realizing that it just wasn't his day.

The blood was still visible on the hawk's foot but didn't seem to hinder its ability to fly.

Our hero flew immediately to the top of a nearby fir tree and it was comforting to see that it seemed to be in fairly good shape. I wondered if the muskrat had bitten the foot of the hawk and hoped that the damage was minimal.

Epilogue: A week after this incident I spotted what I believe to be our hawk perched in a nearby tree and when he few away there was no evidence of any physical impairment.