The Hawk

I watched a gorgeous hawk getting hassled by two crows this morning. The hawk was looking for a thermal, but was pretty low; the crows seemed to be having some sport at the hawk’s expense. It seemed at times like a WWI-era dogfight, two on one, with lots of maneuvering. But the hawk was patient - it had an advantage in soaring efficiency, and exploited it expertly.

The hawk patiently put up with the harrying crows , and just kept working to find that thermal, circling around and around; the hawk would gain a few inches of altitude, the crow would have to work to keep up. Eventually the hawk caught a ride on a good updraft, and quickly left the crow (only one now, the other having given it up as too much effort to be entertaining) at an ever-lower altitude. The hawk stuck with the thermal as it drifted downwind, and soon was both too high and too far away for me to easily spot. Hopefully the hawk found good hunting without our neighborhood crows!