Wild America

Remember the old Marty Stouffer show Wild America? It was one of my favorites as a kid. I got to witness my own bit of Wild America while running intervals today. At about 1 mile in, I noticed a Harris' Hawk hovering low in the distance. It was maybe 4-5 feet in the air, going from bush to bush. I slowed down as I got with in 30 yards of it and the bird never noticed me. As I scanned the ground beneath the hawk's perch, I saw the unmistakable flash of white from a distressed cotton-tail rabbit.

The hawk would dart back and forth, up and over, and around the little bush trying to snatch the cotton tail, but the rabbit stayed low to the ground protected by the branches and brush.

I watched this go on for about 15 minutes, hoping the smallish hawk would get his meal, but all the commotion attracted the attention of a full grown female red-tailed hawk. She had to be twice the size of the male Harris' hawk. She slowly glided overhead, about 30-40 feet in the air, and that was all the excuse the poor little Harris' hawk needed to give up and move along.

The red-tail never bothered with the little rabbit; she just took a look from the air and moved along. After both hawks had moved on, I walked over to the brush and the cotton-tail decided that was time to break for it. It darted across the field and into a culvert near the trail.

Anyway, having spent 20 minutes or so watching all this happen, I decided to just jog back the direction I had come from, rather than complete the 3 mile loop.

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