I thought I would make a post about one of my favorite birds, the redtail hawk. I started seeing these awesome birds in the yard where I worked, and there would occasionally be one of them in the area. I would hear it calling out, and that call had an extremely distinct sound, and that sound was like a kitten "mew" only more of a "u" sound, only really really loud.
I would invariably see it sitting near the top in a redwood tree or on the communication tower at the front of our yard, sitting alone with big black crows, usually about 4 or 5 of them circling above it, and the crows would be squawking and would tag team against the redtail by dive bombing it and trying to get the hawk to take flight so they could try and kill it. The crows had claimed the yard as their territory, and even though the hawks did not live around the yard, they would occasionally drop by but the hospitality of the crows was less than inviting.
It is a fact that these excellent hunting birds are equipped with razor sharp talons and an extremely sharp pointed beak, and are capable of high speed in a dive, but the hawk just would not fight back; he would have shredded the crows, but refused.
So one morning I went into work, and I did not hear this particular bird, and I just went about with my usual morning routine. I was a sign installer, and I had a pile of wood out towards the front of the yard I sometimes took from, and when I got my work truck and went out to this wood, my favorite red tail was laying there lifeless on my wood pile, at the bottom of the communication tower. I was really bummed, as I knew that the odds were always against the redtail when 4 or 5 of those crows ganged up on it because it never defended itself against these mobsters!
So I got out my shovel and proceeded to bury it right there under the communication tower, and next to my wood pile. That would place it at the entrance to the yard to watch over the yard. It was still there when I retired from that place.
For a while I would periodically hear them around the area where I live, and seeing these magnificent birds of prey is one of the finer luxuries in life. However, they are joining my other favorite, the humming birds and a lot of the other bird and bee life especially in my area and are becoming less and less, presumably because of the aerial spraying going on.
