It was a young hawk, a broad-winged hawk to be exact and it probably hadn’t been flying long. Just learning to hunt, it was hungry when it likely spied a mouse scurrying in a grassy roadside median. Not old enough to comprehend “cars” yet, it swooped towards the mouse, sending it directly in the path of an oncoming vehicle. The bird smacked the windshield and flopped down on the roadside stunned.
That description is totally hypothetical, but probably not far from being accurate. In this case, however, a caring passerby stopped, captured the young hawk and called Alix Parks with the HappiNest Raptor Rescue facility on Signal Mountain.
That was about two months ago. But Saturday Parks was at the Jones Gap Overlook on Soddy Mountain – officially noted by Google Maps as the Soddy Mountain Hawk Watch with that bird and another broad-winged hawk that suffered a similar fate.
Broad-winged hawks are about the size of a crow, relatively small compared to many other hawks. During the fall they gather into large groups called “kettles” as they migrate south. They soar on thermal air currents allowing them to travel long distances while minimizing the amount of energy they expend. They often travel more than 4,000 miles to South America for the winter…