The hawk I nicknamed "Hooligan" learned a lesson this morning - sometimes prey fights back!
She flew and landed hard on something just a few feet from me, and at first the hawk was winning the battle, and even mantled! I was so excited - thought I was witnessing the first successful attempt at hunting and expected to see a moth or some other little victim. Instead I realized as I was happily snapping away that the "prey" was a long strip of tape! She rolled around and started to panic after a bit and then engaged the other talon and looked like she was going to get tangled in it. I could tell it wasn't that sticky - I was more concerned about her somehow getting herself wrapped up...luckily the strip was long enough that I was able to step on one end so that she could step out of the other end without it "attacking" back. Luckily it wasn't very tacky because of the rain, I think the fact that it fought back was what startled her!
The funny thing was that after the incident she immediately looked like she was queen of the world again - not a single feather was ruffled!
To see more of Chris's incredible shots check out the link here.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrismcc_pics/
Thanks Chris for taking care of the hawks. Photo credit to Chris McConnell - volunteer for the Toronto Wildlife Centre and a fantastic photographer.
