Young Red-Tailed Hawk at Edwin Warner Park- Sunday July 1

It is 104 degrees outside now here in Nashville, but this morning at 6 am a walk was possible, so I took the hounds to Edwin Warner Park.


As we climbed out of my truck, I heard a screeching ruckus going on in the hackberries that line the Little Harpeth River. The dogs and I walked over, and as we stopped to look around two Red Tailed Hawk juveniles circled out of the trees, and one flew right at us and over us.He was as big as his parents, who were still in the hackberries, and the sight of a shaved Shih Tzu no bigger than a rabbit must have made him hungry, for he started caterwauling and demanding to be fed. He was unwary and sat in the tree near us so long that I was able to get these photos. When my walking friend arrived the hawk flew over to his parents, but whether they had a meal for him I cannot say.


There is a hawk nest in a River oak up along the Greenway behind Ensworth School. Perhaps this family hatched there, or perhaps they were a different group. Red-Tailed Hawks are common here, and the fields along the Little Harpeth are rich with rabbits and squirrels, and Red Winged Blackbirds. A hawk buffet, if you will.