Wednesday, February 22, 2012

White Hawk

I saw what looked like a white hawk yesterday when I was taking care of the horses. It was mostly white anyway. It wasn't the first time I had seen a white hawk and I wondered what kind was white. It did all kinds of swoops, and dives, and air-o-batics. And of course I didn't have my camera. I frequently see hawks flying over my property and the near by open areas trying to scare out a mouse or rat to eat. Last week we were sitting in our new sunroom and saw a redtailed hawk dive into the sage brush in the 2 acrea area just to the east of our back yard. The bird didn't come back up like they usually do and we hoped he had killed a mouse and was eating it. About 2 weeks ago I found part of a large rat near where my cats Murphy and Wiley are apt to leave the mice they catch as gifts for me. I was surprised that one of them had killed a rat that large but I had seen Wiley with the young rabbit last spring that managed to get away. This rat was very dead and most of it had been eaten. I disposed of the rest in the trash. But on thinking of the thing I wondered if a hawk or owl had killed it and maybe dropped part of it and was afraid to come back for it with the dogs out.
I did look up white hawks when I had a chance and found that what I was probably a young ferruginous hawk, which gets darker as it gets older, and is the largest American hawk. I know the one I saw was a good sized bird. It is welcome to stay around and eat mice.

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