December 08, 1988 - A Picture-Window View of NatureDecember 8, 1988/The Suffolk Times/Page 11A
A Picture - Window View of Nature
By Paul Stoutenburah
Everyone knows a hawk has sharp
talons and a hooked beak, flies fast and
catches other birds or animals. Hawks
can be big or small. The one most peo-
ple know is our national emblem, the
eagle. Past that, I'm afraid, most
memories become sort of blurred with
Focus on
Nature
only an occasional "I think I saw a
hawk today."
The truth is it's pretty hard to go
through a day, if you are really looking
for hawks, without seeing at least one.
Our picture window looks across our
pasture with a large overgrown field in
the background. It's there we can usu-
ally see a red - tailed hawk soaring on its
endless hunting flights. This is a large
hawk with broad, flapping wings. It
circles high above; if you look care-
fully, the characteristic rusty -red tail can
be seen when it banks and turns.
On my drive to the post office there's
usually a chance to see a kestrel perched
along the telephone wires. Look closely
at this little hawk, no larger than a
robin. You can usually see the head
arched so it can see below, where it is
looking for a meal of a mouse or shrew.
These hawks live and nest in our area.
The kestrel, once called the sparrow
hawk, lives in cavities in trees and in
buildings; the red -tail usually builds its
big stick -nest high in an oak or other
deciduous tree.
Yesterday I had the thrill of seeing a
more secretive and often overlooked
hawk, one of the woodland hawks, a
sharp- shinned. I was casually looking
out our big window when from nowhere
darted this small hawk. It swooped over
the pasture fence and lit on the bottom
rail just as a cardinal dove into a rose-
bush nearby. This wonderful, old -fash-
ioned rose is the one we often see in
people's yards. I slipped mine from my
mother -in -law's parent plant. It's usu-
ally loaded with clusters of small, pink
roses. Today only a few withered and
frost -bumed flowers remained, but its
thick, thorny cover saved Mrs. Cardinal
from becoming a meal for Mr. Hawk.
Frustrated by the cardinal's dive into the
rosebush, the hawk paced up and down
on the fence rail. There was a meal in
there and he couldn't get to it.
Weak Bird Usually Caught
Many dislike hawks because of this
killing attitude, particularly when they
snatch a favorite songbird. We must re-
member that most attempts by the hawk
result in failure. Even if the assault is
successful it usually means the bird or
animal was sick, old or genetically un-
equipped for the natural world. This
theory has been proven time and time
again in all sorts of predator studies.
The wolf in pursuit of the moose takes
only the old and sickly; a healthy moose
can fend off wolves with no difficulty.
The osprey might pick up a flounder in
one of our creeks or bays because the
fish probably did not camouflage itself
correctly.
I could imagine that little cardinal as
the sharpie moved up and down, poking
his head in here and there, those glaring
eyes searching through the thicket.
FEMALE CARDINAL— Briars, rosebushes and thickets of all sorts provide hiding places for small birds and
animals. Predators will always take advantage of those who are oblivious to danger.
These fear tactics went on for two or
three minutes until the cardinal could
stand it no longer and dashed out the
other side. By the time the hawk realized
what had happened it was too late. The
cardinal escaped. The hawk flew over the
field where there were no rosebushes or
clever cardinals.
In early December, while working in
the garden harvesting the last of my
chard and pulling the last of my carrots,
I noticed a little bird flitting between the
pasture fence and the now - shriveled
raspberries. It was catching insects on
the wing, so it had to be some sort of
flycatcher. This was very late; most in-
sects have long stopped flying since
winter's cold has taken over.
That day, though, had been a warm
one, up to 60 degrees. Even my bees
were out doing their last- minute shop-
ping and house - cleaning. I guess other
insects, once dormant, were also up and
about. What kind of flycatcher was so
foolish to stay this late? After all, we've
had some good freezes and the prediction
of the jet stream howling out of the
north didn't paint a very rosy picture for
any kind of bird.
On close examination I couldn't find
any wing bars or eye ring that would
have made it a wood pewee or at least
flycatcher; therefore it had to be a
phoebe. "No wing bars (or dull ones) no
eye - ring" and small. Everything matched
but the tail. There was none. What had
happened? Had.a cat grabbed for it and
wound up with a claw full of feathers?
Or was it that sharp- shinned hawk that
almost, but not quite, caught it for its
noonday meal? I'll never know.
All about us are these everyday crises
in the natural world. It's a system of
checks and balances, one that has created
the world we've come to know. It has
given the cardinal his elusive ways and
drives the hawk in pursuit to kill. Each
species has its own design that lets it
compete in the never - ending struggle for
survival.
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