Food of the Pigmy Owl and Goshawk
Food of the Pigmy Owl and Goshawk
The following observations were made on a place owned by the writer on Hat Creek, in Shasta County, California.
At dusk, on August 18, 1930, the writer was walking toward the creek when something darted past his head, striking a branch of an old dead tree about twenty feet away. It proved to be a California Pigmy Owl (Glaucidium gnoma californicum), and when collected it was found to have in its daws, a freshly killed Cassin Purple Finch (Carpodacus cassinii), of which the head and part of the entrails had already been eaten.
On the evening of August 25, 1931, an American Goshawk (Astur atricapillus) was seen carrying a large mammal which, when the hawk was collected, was found to be a California Gray Squirrel (Sciurus griseus griseus). The head and part of the body had already been consumed by the hawk. The Gray Squirrel has been a rare animal in the above locality for many years, but at the present time it seems to be getting established once more.
Ernest D. Clabaugh
Berkeley, California, March 9, 1933
