Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Niño de la Tierra

At the Randall museum today an adult Red-tailed Hawk flew down and landed about 15 feet from me and made quick work of a Jerusalem Cricket (aka - Niño de la Tierra). More evidence of the importance of insects in the diet of Red-tails.

It took a moment to orient the insect correctly... maybe because they can inflict a bite with their mandibles.



Click the image to get a better sense of scale. This is the same hawk toward dusk, surveying the cityscape below.

1 comment:

John W. Wall said...

Great stuff, Walter. I especially welcome the news (to me) that the city hosts martian crickets.