Jay Reiter sent this photo of a red-tailed hawk he discovered perched behind the Lindell Terrace at Lindell and Taylor one evening last week. There have been several sightings of these raptors—perhaps related to each other—around the neighborhood over the past several months.
I sent the photo to Martin Schweig, our neighborhood bird guru, to confirm that this is indeed a red-tailed hawk. Martin emailed: “The photograph is of a young red-tailed hawk, probably one or two years old….the photograph is good enough to see the eye color which is a good indicator of age. Red-tailed hawks usually have a dark brown iris after two or more years.” Isn’t that fascinating?
When I ran into Jay at the CWEA House Tour Preview Party on Friday night and reported what I had learned from Martin, Jay remarked that there aren’t as many pigeons in the CWE as before, implying that the hawks could be the reason. When informed of this, my husband expressed hope that the huge and multiplying population of rabbits might be next. This comment is sure to spark some controversy, particularly among the bunny huggers.