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Nature, red in beak and claw



All,

About an hour ago I got to witness one of those spectacular natural moments, in a most mundane setting. I was driving about 35 mph on Blue Ridge Road in Raleigh, headed to the Credit Union to get some cash for state fair tickets, when two gray flashes dashed across the hood of my truck no more than four feet from my head as I sat behind the wheel. I slowed immediately and looked to my right to see a Cooper's hawk inches from the tail of a madly darting mourning dove, headed over the former site of the juvenile correction facility. The hawk tracked every maneuver of the dove with incredible precision; I've rarely witnessed such awesome focus. A flock of starlings scattered as the two approached, and then the Cooper's overtook the dove and nabbed it in mid-air! He dropped to the ground out of my sight, no doubt to administer the coup de gras.

I saw two Coop's spiraling on a thermal over the NCSU campus about two hours before this.

If I had been 1/2 second earlier I feel sure both would have collided with the side of my truck. This is only the 4th or 5th time I've seen a wild raptor make a bird kill in over 30 years of watching for them.

Woohoo, indeed!

Take care,

Clyde Sorenson
Clayton and Raleigh, NC