The Pole Dispute 2 - a photo on Flickriver

The Pole Dispute 2

            A Red-tailed hawk sits on a wire atop a telephone pole surveying the area in search of a midday snack . . . but the forces to be had a different idea in mind for this day. A crow quickly begins swooping down, attacking the hawk relentlessly in small intervals for a period of over twenty minutes.

Though attacks weren't at the same exact time, there were also two other, much smaller birds in the immediate area, which also started attacking this hawk that fine afternoon while it was perched. 

In the same spot a mockingbird and a sparrow had each taken their own turns to swoop in to annoy the powerful predator at different intervals between the other bird's attack. It was almost as if it was one long coordinated attack amongst the three, taking turns to cause disruption and discomfort for the mighty bird.

Alas, for the smaller two antagonists, this hawk didn't even turn its head or flinch as they swooped in and pecked at it, only the larger crow had been able to stir the hawk and gather any type of uncomfortable reaction. Nonetheless, that didn't dissuade the smaller birds from  continuing to do their own part, besides, it probably made them feel good anyway! 

At one point the hawk left its perch to dive swiftly down into the nearby open field. It was hidden amongst the field's tall grass where I could not witness what it had seen and tried to hunt. However, within 20 to 30 seconds, the bird once again was airborne, on its way back to its high perch. There was nothing in its talons that I could see, so it was either able to eat its quarry very fast, or simply missed whatever prey it had tried to descend upon.

As the hawk was rising above the open field, 2 red-winged blackbirds appeared out of nowhere and protested in vigor, starting their own swooping assault on the retreating hunter.

As the hawk neared the pole once again, now well away from the area it had dove into the field, the two blackbirds halted their attack, turned away, and headed back over their field, without a doubt, most likely feeling very good about themselves too.

At this point the cycle of attacks on the poor hawk started anew, minus the sparrow, with just the crow and mockingbird once again taking their turns repeatedly. Another 10 - 15 minutes, and the frustrated hawk had finally seemed to reach its limit, so it took flight vacating the area for rest of the day!

Taken on: May 27, 2017

Tags:

Pennsylvania

Bucks County

Lumix

DMC-FZ35

Darkonus

18x

Zoom

Freehand

Tuesday

Telegraph

Telegraph Tuesday

Red

Tailed

Hawk

Crow

Dispute

Pole

Buteo

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Sets appears in: • Nature and Pets 2D

Groups appears in: • Lumix Photographer • Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 (FZ38) Digital Camera more » • Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35(DMC-FZ38) Digital Camera • Birds with Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ35 • Telegraph Tuesday « less

Camera: Panasonic DMC-FZ35, f/4.4, 1/320 sec, 86.3mm, ISO 100 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Panasonic DMC-FZ35
Aperture:	f/4.4
Exposure Time:	0.003 sec (1/320)
Focal Length:	86.3mm
ISO:	100
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Off, Did not fire
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop CS5 Windows
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