Red-Tailed hawk

Red-Tailed Hawk (Pinery Provincial Park, September 2014)

While visiting the rare Oak Savannah at Pinery Provincial Park and helping out with some wonderful highschool classes this fall, I was fortunate enough to encounter a red-tailed hawk perching on a branch near the group camp-site.  I learned from reading Bird Tracks and Sign* that hawks raise their tail to eject a spray of uric acid when they deposit their droppings.  In comparison, owls splat or puddle their droppings straight down.  Something to look for…

*Elbroch, M. & Marks, E. 2001, Bird Tracks and Sign, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA.