Photo by Andrea Gilbreath

Apparently a sharp-shinned hawk eating a mockingbird...

by Andrea Gilbreath

On October 16, a guy I work with came in from lunch and told me to bring by camera outside. A hawk had just swooped down in front of his truck with something in its claws and was sitting on the grass outside the Tuscaloosa City Board of Education - eating the victim.

I grabbed my little Nikon CoolPix hoping to get a shot before the bird flew off. It was sprinkling rain and my hands were shaky from being hungry myself (being 50-something doesn't help that, either) but I didn't think there was time to dig out a tripod. My mistake.

The little hawk didn't fly away, so I switched on the video and edged closer and closer. I ended up with 17 minutes and 35 seconds of recorded feather-plucking and gobbet gulping. I don't get to hike and camp as I did in my younger days and really miss it. It's ironic that my chair-sitting job handed me such a gift when my years of outdoor meditation never put me this close to literally raw nature.

I've wanted to put the video on my blog, but since it's 1.43 GB, I'll have to figure our how to edit it first. I did manage to pull off a few stills. The quality isn't great, but you can see the bird fairly well. One birding friend says this is a broadwing hawk. Another claims it's a Cooper's hawk.

Because of its choice of prey (a mocking bird), its small size, the long, banded tail with its square end, the bird's yellow eyes, and accipiter-like rather than buteo-like body, I think it's an immature sharp-shinned hawk, but that's a beginner's guess. (Marianne Murphy, a Raptor Biologist at Auburn University, later said it was a young sharp-shinned hawk).

I had hoped to record until it flew away, but ran out of memory. By the time I dumped the video and cleared the memory chip, the hawk had gone, taking the remains of the corpse and leaving only feathers and a single bloody lump I didn't investigate too closely. I did take a still shot of the remains.

The hawk stopped eating a few times to cock his/her head at a mocking bird singing nearby and kept an eye on me as I sat down on the sidewalk and edged closer and closer. It was too brave for its own good and I figured it was either young or really hungry or both. Maybe it was just sensed my respect and wanted to bask in some worshipful admiration : )

I would be tickled if you want to use any any of those photos and will try to get a different angle off the video if you know of a distinguishing feature that would help identify this beautiful bird. It was magical - but now I'm slavering for a good camera!

Photos by Andrea Gilbreath

"Filming the hawk was an oh-my-gawd experience," Ms. Gilbreath said.

Editor's Note: Thanks for the photos and story Andrea. Reminds me of my own experience two and a half years ago when I first moved back to Birmingham and saw that squirrel fight off that hawk. I had to have a quality digital camera, so I went out and bought a Nikon D50. Unfortunatley, it is now on the blink and will be in the shop for a few weeks. So please don't hesitate to send me more photos and stories, people. We will be needing art...