Wild Saturday: CSI on Glenview red-tail

SHARE Wild Saturday: CSI on Glenview red-tail

I had high hopes when Ralph Greenslade sent this sequence of a red-tailed hawk in action. High hopes that dinner was a backyard squirrel.

3260328534_003e24e724.jpg

This is the first of a sequence of five shots of the red-tail in a Glenview backyward.

3259496699_b9e66c16b9_m.jpg

Ralph, an editor and slot man on the Sun-Times sports desk, e-mailed,

I thought you may be interested in some photos of a red-tail hawk that I took Tuesday through my living-room window.

Oh, I always am.

3260330184_c58e3d4e7a_m.jpg

Here’s the setup:

It was about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday when I looked out the front of my house in Glenview and saw something weird happening about 25 yards away near our neighbor’s tree. I grabbed my camera, put on the 300 mm zoom, and took 12 shots of the red-tail hawk devouring something … perhaps a squirrel? I haven’t traversed through the snow to check out the carcass. I shot the photos from the comfort of my living room. I only wished I had followed through and cleaned my windows on a warm day in December like I had planned! And … if the tree hadn’t been in the background, perhaps the photos would have turned out better. The hawk took off and landed in another neighbor’s tree. Nothing like a little outdoors fun from the comfort of your living room.

It’s my life.

3259497203_e6a375f3a9_m.jpg
3259497523_c663ceae34_m.jpg

Unfortunately, I say unfortunately because I had hoped dinner was one of the backyard rodents, Ralph sent this a couple days later:

Upon further review, I don’t think the hawk’s victim was a squirrel, unless squirrels come with feathers these days. Must have been some sort of bird, but I didn’t get close enough to make a determination. My CSI ability is limited to using the TV remote control.

The Latest
Only two days after an embarrassing loss to lowly Washington, the Bulls put on a defensive clinic against Indiana.
One woman suffered a gunshot wound to the neck. In each incident, the four to five men armed with rifles, handguns and knives, approached victims on the street in Logan Square, Portage Park, Avondale, Hermosa threatened or struck them before taking their belongings, police said.
For as big of a tournament moment as Terrence Shannon Jr. is having, it hasn’t been deemed “madness” because, under the brightest lights, he has been silent.
This year, to continue making history, the Illini will have to get past No. 2-seeded Iowa State.