More wildlife drama

After running thousands of miles on the Nike campus, it's hard not to get familiar with the behavior of some of the local wildlife, not to mention runners, in this nature preserve. I have now had three encounters with a red tailed preying on the babies of a variety of animals. Last year, I saw it fly about ten feet over my head with a baby robin it talons. A few seconds behind it were two adult robins chasing after it while making what sounded like agitated and desperate calls.

A couple of weeks ago, I was observing a mother mallard with about 8 of its baby duckling following in a single file line when out of the blue, comes a red tailed hawk diving for a baby duckling. The duck was able to defend its babies by slamming into to the hawk while flapping its wings as if it was in ultimate fighting match. This all seemed like some sort of strange irony to see this happen on the grounds of the NIke world headquarters. Nike's founder Phil Knight, has donated millions to the University of Oregon athletic program who's mascot happens to be none other than a "duck".

Earlier today I yet another encounter with this cunning hawk. As I was running my second two mile loop, I noticed a gang of crows in a nearby tree. I could see that they were surrounding what looked like a large bird nest. The crows were unusually close to the trail since they are typically skittish. I figured the crows were raiding the nest so I felt obligated to scare them away. I went over and shook the tree by grabbing and pulling on a nearby branch. I was startled when a red tailed hawk flew out of the nest. Could this be the Hawk's nest, so low to the ground? I decided that the crime scene needed some more investigation before I could prove the hawk guilty again of being a baby killer. The trail is a two mile loop and I still had 4 more loops to go. On my second time around, I wanted to see if I could find the owner of the nest that was previously raided. To my surprise, I saw a very distraught squirrel defending the nest and chirping at me like I was the one who just committed the crime. I also gained some new respect for the intelligence of crows. The crows were obviously keeping a close watch on this hawk and maybe following it for potential left overs since they are scavengers by trade.

I have to give the hawk credit for being very resourceful what seems like a limited territory for a large bird of prey. It is also interesting to see a complete ecosystem that is sustaining a wide variety of native plants and animals. Not to mention, it is in the center of an industrial park.

In retrospect, I have learned that I cannot pass judgement on this seemingly evil hawk.
Theoretically, every time I eat a hamburger, I am no less immoral than a hawk, just a little more technologically advanced
in my animal protein consumption.