Thanks for posting and sharing, Mark. As much as I would like to think birds like me as much as I like them, and hence they want to get as close to me as possible, now I see this was a hectic survival moment I biked into. I was laughing by the surprise of it all, but now I see the birds were freaking out (no laughable). The doves were flying like bullets into the evergreens. It felt like the hawk was intentional with its contact with me, but now I think I was just in its way and that it was super hungry! Now it all makes sense that as my friend and I waited at the evergreen, there was a scuffle after a few minutes and a mourning dove came bolting out, faster than I've ever saw one fly! It shot right into another evergreen, and the hawk came out shortly thereafter (not immediately), and probably flipping me a birdie. And that is when I got the view of it flying away from me (again) and then seeing its silhouette in a tree. Given it was probably super hungry, I'll think twice before I track an "aggressive" hawk as I might be interfering with its survival. (I hope it will be OK.)
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