Date: 6/16/26 1:28 pm From: Shelf Life Community Story Project via Tweeters <tweeters...> Subject: Re: [Tweeters] Red-tailed Hawk Attack
Cool story, Jim.
I’ll never forget the time I saw a short-tailed weasel, in broad daylight, on the UW Bothell campus, take down a mole right in front of me. Then it stood over the carcass and stared me down until I gave it some space.
But maybe the most astonishing kill I witnessed was in Rosario Strait last year, just off Washington Park. A Bald Eagle caught a Glaucous Winged Gull mid flight, close to the water, held the gull underwater until it was dead, and then took off, with the gull in its talons, from the position of sitting on the water. I’ve seen adult Bald Eagles struggle to take off from the water with much smaller prey, ultimately having to swim to shore. But this one lifted off like one of those military helicopters and flew that poor enormous gull back to its hungry nestlings.
> On Jun 16, 2026, at 1:08 PM, Jim Betz via Tweeters <tweeters...> wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> Yesterday, when I was leaving I-5 for 11 (Chuckanut Drive) and was just exiting the
> roundabout on the West side of the freeway - a dark-colored bird streaked across
> the road in front of me and into the back side of the last bush before the open
> fields. There was one furious shaking of that bush and then I saw an RTH come
> out of the bush and cross back in front of me - this all took just a few seconds,
> no more than 10 or 20. As it recrossed the road I could see a medium-sized
> bird in its talons ... probably a robin, Twohee, or some kind of black bird ... but
> not large enough to be crow-sized. Looking in my rear view mirror I saw it go up
> towards the top of a pole but had to look away for traffic before actually
> seeing it land.
> The only other times I've seen RTH with prey have been a few rodents (voles
> probably) in the vicinity of the East 90 and once on the ground close to
> Maupin Road on Fir Island with a Green-winged Teal (consuming).
> I've seen Great Blue Herons with/taking prey quite often. And Bald Eagles
> on a pole consuming a duck. And the occasional Kestrel with a vole/mouse.
> But, as I said, it is usually after the actual "catch".
> I once saw and photographed an Osprey making repeated drops into the
> shallow water at Ship ... but it always came up empty (that day/that time).
>
> Wonderful to see the actual kill happening rather than the much more
> common "sitting on a pole or wire looking around for movement".
>
> - Jim in Skagit
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