NATURE NOTES FROM ACADIA

INNOCENT HAWK?

Early in August while a group of hikers whom I had guided to the summit of Huguenot Head paused along the trailside to listen to the singing of a Red-eyed Vireo, a Sharp-shinned Hawk suddenly flashed upon the scene in close pursuit of some small frightened bird. We all had an unusually good look at this aggressive little "bullet hawk" who dashed this way and that through the leafy crowns of a grove of birch trees. He disappeared as suddenly as he came, leaving us to wonder whether he had or had not been successful in his chase.

When we put sentiment aside, is not the Sharp-shin as innocent as the smaller songbird who makes sallies after the insect folk? The smaller bird, in the course of a day, takes many more lives. The sight my group beheld gave me a splendid opportunity to discuss the hawk problem.

- Temporary Park Naturalist