By Lou

Yesterday, Dana, Carol P, Dan and myself watched a hard-headed Red tail hawk get pounded by the Peregrine falcons. I refer to it as “hard-headed” because on the previous day, Dana had witnessed a Red tail hawk get brutally pounded by the falcons in the river near the nest box and it seems the hawk came back for more punishment…

Around 1:00 PM yesterday, a Red tail hawk was spotted flying over the river near the Broad Street bridge. One of the Falcons (we think Archer) reacted to this territory-intruder and swiftly went after it, pushing it out of the area, south, into the Corn Hill district. Watching through our binoculars, we saw the falcon repeatedly dive bomb the Red tail. At one point, the poor hawk landed on a roof and seemingly didn’t know what else to do except just sit there and take a beating from the falcon who just kept swooping down on it. Eventually though, the falcon came back and took up a guard position on the Mercury statue.

But wouldn’t you know, about 10 minutes later, the hard-head came back again. But this time, he came back with a second red tail – it was kind of like he was bringing his big brother to settle the score. However, the hawks must have been surprised when both falcons took to the air. And it seemed that big brother disappeared quickly, leaving the same poor red tail again in the same predicament. Sure enough, the falcons again started going after him. The hawk landed in the safe haven of a tree next to the library, Beauty went back to the nest box, and Archer again took up position on Mercury. I managed to get a few shots of the hawk while it was in the tree- it had such a sweet face and it looked like he was just plain tired from getting beat up.

Eventually, the hawk flew under the bridge below us. We didn’t see him come out on the other side so Dana and Carol took a walk to a driveway near the Convention Center to take a look under the bridge. They couldn’t see anything. The hawk appeared again later, flying over the river where it flew up under a structure that’s on the east bank of the river, next to the convention center. After a short while, he came back out again and Archer immediately went after it, swooping on the hawk as it flew across the river and back, where it landed in another tree. We couldn’t help but feel sorry for the hawk – he just didn’t have any place to go and Archer was on him as soon as he took flight.

While the hawk was sitting there in the tree with Archer peering down on him from Mercury’s heel just waiting to attack it again, we noticed a group of pigeons perched on the wall looking into the river, seemingly watching the interaction like spectators at a Ultimate Fighter’s Championship event. We had to laugh. But we really hoped that the hard-headed hawk would just leave the area and live to see another day. Our prayers were answered when he eventually took off and flew south, hugging the wall by the library and escaping under the Court Street bridge.

We wondered what would drive such behavior. Perhaps there is a food source, such as vermin in the subway area, that the hawk is familiar with and was determined to go after, but now, with Archer’s return, that area is within nest box territory and is now off-limits. Whatever it was, I think the Broad Street bridge might be prime viewing territory for us watchers and I think yesterday provided a glimpse of how things might be with the new pair and the new nesting location. Hard-heads beware!

Here’s a link to an album with some pictures: (Log-in required. Thx)

http://tinyurl.com/yhgm573

Lou