Red-tailed Hawk Drinking from a Clump of Leaves
This morning around 9:30, a Red-tailed Hawk flew into a scrawny white oak on the edge of the woods around our back yard. I saw it through my office windows while I was on the phone. It wasn’t a conversation I could end easily, so I tried to watch the hawk and listen and say something now and then, all at the same time – though I never have been good at doing two things at once.
In the oak, a large, messy clump of brown leaves has accumulated in a crotch where the trunk splits into a three-way fork. The hawk perched on a branch beside this clump of leaves. It was alone, not accompanied by any harassing crows or mockingbirds. After a minute or two of looking around, it turned toward the tree and began to lean over and put its head down into the clump of leaves. It leaned over and back up several times, and I’m not sure, but I think it was drinking. The leaves in the crotch of the oak may have formed a depression that catches water.