Last week I wrote here about a giant bird feasting on a squirrel in our backyard. My dad, who has recently retired, has been working full time from his home office in Tennessee to identify said bird. He got in touch with a specialist named Jane at the Illinois Raptor Center in Decatur, who identified it as a red tailed hawk. The confusing thing is that the hawk doesn't have a red tail, but Jane says that's because it's a young red tail, and that red tail hawks don't actually live up to their name until they're in their second year; before then, apparently, their tails are brown or black. She also says the "belly band"--which I take to be the spotted markings around the mid-chest area--is a "dead giveaway." My response is: that means this thing is going to get even bigger? I think I need to keep Tillie inside until she's full grown, the little squirt.
Spencer called this one, for the record.
