Talon show

I love living in Cambridge. I was walking into Inman Square. Had my head down to look for icy patches, and suddenly I see a movement to my right. There, sitting on a fence, was a hawk, eating a pigeon. He looked at me - we were just about eye level - as if to say, "Yeah, lady? Whadya want?" I'm afraid I went "eep," and he flew off, right in front of me - INCHES away – across very urban Inman Square, to finish his meal on the awning of Cambridge Family Health Center. Not a healthy place for pigeons, I guess.

I watched him for a while, along with a few other people – a man unloading a truck who confessed to being a little afraid of him (I pointed out that the hawk would be scarier if it were still hungry), a woman who had my reaction when we pointed the hawk out ("eep!" followed by laughter), another who said that she sees hawks all the time from her office window - and the ground below is always littered with pigeon bits! - and a guy in a car who looked up and asked, "Is that a gull?" Oh, please.

(This is a US Wildlife photo. Substitute in a busy city intersection, hawk sitting first on wire fence, then on purple awning.)

Fenway hawk update

When a redtailed hawk attacked a 13-year-old at Fenway Park last night, it made a big splash in the local news. (The young woman is ok, the talons scratched her scalp and she was treated but it doesn't sound like there was any serious damage.) Turns out, the hawk was nesting nearby and most stories end with the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife and Boston's Animal Rescue League removing the nest, which contained an egg. This seemed unfair to me - why blame the hawk? Why not just cordon off the area until nesting is over? But Christopher Smalley at ARL has explained. The egg, which was deemed nonviable, was removed from a steel beam near the nest. (It had fallen out; this new story has details.) The nest was not. Smalley writes in an email:

By state law, the ARL of Boston is only able to remove injured or deceased wildlife. The non-viable egg was transported to the DFW. The ARL of Boston did not remove the nest. It's our understanding that the Hawk is still in the vicinity of Fenway Park.

Good to know.