Great stories, Tom, and I hope your post resurrects this thread. We
discussed cordivae (Ravens and Crows) and hawks' behavior several times
over the years and it's one of my favorite threads. Caro, GaryO and a
couple others have lots to say about cordivae behavior.
One of my fave experiences with a red tail (stop me if you've heard this
one): Several years ago, over the flats of NCentral IL, I was looking
for a thermal when a female red tail scooted below me and towards a
"tree corner" where the male's thermalling was already in progress. I
was at 1600' or so agl.
Round about 2500', the hawk was getting closer... like about 20 feet
below, so I said, "Hey hawk!". The bird did a rapid 45-to-45 to see what
the noise was, saw nothing, and resumed circling. When she was about 10
feet below, I shouted, "HEY, HAWK!" (I mena, what _do_ you say to a
hawk?) followed by a most amazing display of aerobatic control.
The big bird rolled inverted, belly up. It looked at me, scowled,
extended talons (all while on its back) and screeched. Then it did a
half-loop to go right-side-up, tightened its wings and, in 3 turns was
easily 150 feet above me.
We played tag for about 9 miles. Once she realized I was up there just
for fun and wasn't a threat, she's show me a thermal and wait until I
got there before she headed off to the next one.
Gotta love them birds!
PeterB
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