Audacity of a Sharp-Shinned Hawk
Audacity of a Sharp-shinned Hawk
On the morning of October 28, 1928, in a line of bird banding traps in operation at Woodacre Lodge, Marin County, California, a wire netting, funnel type trap, 24 x 36 inches in size, was placed on the ground on the sunny side of a long pile of cordwood, the interstices of which afforded comforting protection to a flock of Golden-crowned Sparrows. Sharp-shinned Hawks (Accipiter velox), although nearly every trap had over it a cover made of S-inch mesh wire netting to allow small birds to enter but to keep out cats, quail, etc., had been making efforts to get at the birds in some of the more exposed traps, but had succeeded only in causing more or less panic among the captives. On one of my rounds that morning the trap at the woodpile was found to contain some sparrows. After removing the protective cover I was standing over the trap, with my feet rather wide apart for better balancing, with my soft hat in hand gently “shooing” the captive birds into the small catching box at the farther corner. In the midst of this operation I was startled by a feathered bolt, as it were, flashing past me from behind with incredible speed, that brushed my right knee as it passed and came suddenly to a full stop on top of the trap and only a few inches from my hand, with both talons trying to grab a sparrow through the wire netting. I was so taken by surprise that almost involuntarily I struck at the hawk with my hat to save the birds from possible injury. This was an unfortunate impulse, for it would have been much better to have kept still so as to watch further developments, as the birds were not in any actual danger except through fright. Possibly my khaki-colored clothing blended sufficiently with the woodpile to make me inconspicuous, or else the hawk, a very small one, was made so bold by hunger as to be indifferent to the presence of a human being.
Joseph Mailliard
California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California, October 31, 1928
