Wings fall from the sky at Littleton

[David Suddjian]

Yesterday afternoon I was proceeding west on Mineral Blvd approaching Santa Fe Blvd. As I passed under the railroad overpass there I noticed something float-falling down onto the cement embankment along Mineral below the railroad. Whatever it was I couldn’t be sure right off, but “It” had wings - several of them - and it landed just 5 feet away from the right hand lane of turning cars. And the traffic was dense, so other cars soon blocked my view of the scene.

I remained stopped at the signal there through two light cycles, taking a few minutes, and I was able to finally see what was what. The thing that had fallen from the sky to the cement below was two Cooper’s Hawks, males I think, with locked talons. They remained engaged for minutes while on the cement, wings outspread, making high pitched pissed off chirps at each other, bills open, neither giving in. The cars rolled slowly by to turn right, and I imagine most drivers did not even notice the talon-locked hawks right beside the busy road. As I had passed they finally broke it up and took off.

Here are a couple poor drive-by phone pics to show the scene.

David Suddjian
KennCaryl Valley
Littleton, CO

[wmrki...@gmail.com]

Several years ago I witnessed a similar scene between two red-tails adjacent to the I-225 off ramp at DTC Boulevard.  They stayed locked probably for 10 minutes or so.

Bill Killam