Photo © 2009 Ruby Jung and licensors. All rights reserved

11 - Hawks prominent perched along roads

Anyone driving through our area in winter should keep their eyes open for perching hawks along the highways. The lack of leaves on the trees makes these large predacious birds easily spotted. Among our more common winter hawks are the Red-tailed, Red-shouldered, and Broad-winged Hawks. The much smaller Sparrow Hawk (actually a falcon) or American Kestrel is also commonly spotted now as well.

While our hawks aren't exactly lazy they seem to prefer to let others do their killing for them whenever possible. So they're perched here waiting for some hapless small animal to make a mistake and get squashed by passing traffic. Once the coast is clear the hawk swoops down and gets an easy meal

Photo © 2009 Ruby Jung and licensors. All rights reserved

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