As I was walking into the Plymouth Congregational Church at Franklin and Nicollet in Minneapolis yesterday for a rehearsal of Gilbert & Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance", some motion caught my eye, so I lifted my head to see a House Sparrow buzzing along about 50 feet over the church roof, heading west, with a Sharp-shinned Hawk below and behind it, just clearing the roof ridge of the church. The Hawk accelerated upwards with a choppy, stiff-winged, rowing motion. It took about 3 seconds for the hawk to be within 5 feet of the sparrow. The sparrow then twisted, turned and veered down to the right, towards LaSalle Avenue - the hawk swooped to remain below and rolled to take the bird in a single left jab. The hawk then rolled back to right itself, but with the bird in its extended foot, it corrected too much and as it flew out of sight, it was rocking back and forth on its horizontal axis, but with dinner in its grasp. Extreme cool beans for all involved, excepting the sparrow, of course...
Mark Alt Brooklyn Center, MN Hennepin County ---- Join or Leave mou-net: http://lists.umn.edu/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=mou-net Archives: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mou-net.html
