While en route to the park to take Roxie for a walk this morning I had a rather scary moment. I noticed something in the inside lane - I was in the outside lane - and, as I approached it, determined that the objects were a pair of Red-shouldered Hawks, one of which was standing with its wings cupped and very obviously protecting something white. The scary part came when, just as I got to them, a faster car came up from behind in the inside lane (where the birds were) and the hawk that wanted whatever the other hawk was protecting took flight. In my direction. I watched it just clear the bed of my truck in the rear view mirror. Fortunately the hawk that remained on the highway stayed put while the other vehicle swerved into a turn lane in order to avoid it.

I quickly decided to make a u-turn at the first opportunity and get whatever they had off of the highway and, hopefully, save a hawk from almost certain death. It was only a minute or two when I got back to the scene and found that the white object was the remains of a Cattle Egret (probably hit by a car). The hawks at that point were perched in nearby trees and were likely pondering how to get that egret out of the street with Sunday morning traffic starting to pick up. I looked around and found a stick which I then used to "sweep" the remains about 30 feet off of the road - now they could at least eat in relative safety.