This photo by reader Jon, showing a Cooper’s hawk (Accipter cooperii) taking a squirrel, makes me sad, but that’s nature, folks. His notes:
Not everyone’s day for a walk in the park, this being Centennial Park in Nashville, the same urban park that sports the Parthenon replica.
Camera/lens: Canon 5D3, EF200mm f/2.8L at f/3.2 and 1/2000 sec.
That looks like a young Red-tail or other Buteo, not a Cooper’s Hawk.
Seconded; it’s a juvenile red-tail. Those dark patagial markings are diagnostic.
Tail neither long enough nor banded enough for Cooper’s?
Right, the tail is too short, and also the wings are too long, legs too thick, beak too massive, whole thing too big.
I sent the picture to an ornithologist friend (also a falconer) who regularly chases squirrels out of nestboxes he’s set up for owls, and he said it’s not a Cooper’s Hawk but an immature redtail.
Is everyone sure that is a Coopers? The size relative to the squirrel suggests a Buteo. And that beak.. I think it’s an immature Red Tail
Why should a biologist be sad about an ongoing ecological relationship?
Because biologists are humans born and raised with empathy, empathy which is broad enough to apply to other species which suffer pain.
Predation may be natural and the way life on earth works, but it is also mean and causes much suffering. It is possible to understand its necessity while still recognizing its inherent cruelty – a system which demonstrates that this earth and the nature upon it could not have been created by an all loving god.
Predation is mean? Can you explain that? Also, do you think the suffering caused by predation is worse than the suffering that would result without it?
Beautiful shot!
Last spring, in a large tree in the neighbor’s yard, a squirrel started making all kinds of noise. It was because a Coopers Hawk was going after another, young, squirrel on a nearby limb. It grabbed the little squirrel and flew away with it, and it was a bleak sight. Seeing such a swift and painful death in the midst of all the new life of spring wasn’t so easy. It took a while to get over it.
I had a similar experience with a Merlin and a house sparrow in my yard. The attack was so sudden and came apparently out of nowhere, it was almost like witnessing a shooting. Bang! And it was over.
Great photo!
I can imagine a thought bubble coming from that mouse:
“It’s going to be another one of those days”.
First of all, it’s a squirrel, not a mouse. Second of all, I seriously doubt it’s had days like that (nabbed by a hawk) previously. The thought bubble is probably more like, “OH SHIT!”
Actually it looks like the squirrel may be still alive and perhaps trying to bite the talon that is holding it. Remember this is a young, inexperienced bird. The squirrel may very well do some damage.
Nope, I blew up the photo and what appeared to be an ear is actually the squirrel’s nose! The head is in fact facing downward and backwards; the squirrel has twisted its body around to use its paws to struggle, but the hawk has it by the back of the neck, a perfect capture. The squirrel is indeed having a very bad day.
I was standing on a street corner a couple of Springs ago and heard a “thump!” right behind me- I spun around to see a squirrel gathering himself after falling about 15 feet out of a hawk’s clutches onto the brick sidewalk. The squirrel ran awkwardly for another tree while the hawk circled and tried another pass, but the squirrel got to a safe spot first where branches prevented the hawk from getting at him. The hawk circled the tree for some time, trying to “spook” the squirrel into moving again, but didn’t succeed.
You can understand my confusion, I thought that thing hang out on the left was a Nightjar.
Sad for the squirrel, happy for the hawk.
But sadder for the squirrel.
It’s the ‘life-dinner principle’ (Dawkins & Krebs).
See what happens when sin enters the world? ;P
A red squirrel can chew quickly through wood and even, say, a wire window screen. That red-tail’s foot is receiving the same penetrating treatment.
I thought so too, at first, but it’s an optical illusion. See my last comment under #7. That’s a skillful hawk, contrary to my initial impression.
You think he has him by the throat? Hard to tell, but could be.
I once saw a young red-tail snatch a kitten right out of a farmer’s barnyard. The kitten curled right up in kittenish surrender and off they flew.
No Don, as I said above, the squirrel is facing down and slightly backwards. The hawk has his talon in the upper neck of the squirrel. There is no doubt—the photo is amazingly sharp and you can save it to your computer and then blow it up in an image processing program like Photoshop, and you’ll see what I mean.
OK–I see what you mean, Lou. What I took for an ear is actually the nose.
Exactly.
Thank you to the hawk-eyed for correcting my species misidentification. Should be Buteo jamaicensis.
Fantastic capture, Jon!
Squirrels, while “cute and cuddly,” are destructive creatures that can easily cause hundreds and thousands of dollars in damages to one’s house.
Furthermore, the idea of a food chain that causes pain and suffering for living creatures is entirely contradictory to the concept of “Intelligent Design” by a loving, omniscient, super-natural creator.
I NEVER see anything intelligent in any of this. That nature exists as it does is evidence against ID.
To one’s house? How?Or is this the American thing about building houses out of wood? You sound like it was your (or a close friend/ family) house that got trashed.
Yes, houses in the US are framed from wood and sometimes covered in wood products. Squirrels chew through them and nest in attics and other spaces. They then chew through just about anything inside there. And at least once a year they get into the electrical transformers in the neighborhood, causing them to “explode” and cause a power outage. Squirrels are a nuisance.
Does that add up to hundreds of thousands of dollars? Per house?
Which reminds me to get up the ladder and re-fix the PVC soffit under the eaves. Should take a few seconds. I know that the Canadians have PVC “siding”, and love it because it lasts decades longer than the wooden stuff ; I assume that it has penetrated south of the border too? Do the squirlz chew through that too? (I never thought to ask the Canuks.) If so, then the PVC company that invests some money into studying the taste aversions of squirlz is going to make a proverbial million.
There’s something wrong with you. I never wrote “hundreds of thousands of dollars? Per house?”
Regardless, here are just two examples of squirrel damage:
http://guardianlv.com/2014/04/squirrel-caused-300000-in-damages-to-mcmillen-park/
http://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/10/business/stray-squirrel-shuts-down-nasdaq-system.html
Amazing and a rare picture!