Hawk and fox  On my way down to the county government center to testify before the Board of Supervisors to ask for more funding for bike and pedestrian facilities I saw a beautiful hawk perched on a chain link fence adjacent to the Fairfax County Parkway trail. I've never been that close to a wild hawk. I think it might have been a broad wing hawk. It had a banded tail and was about 15 inches long. Sitting in the light of the setting sun, it looked impressive. A short distance beyond the hawk I saw about 5 doves clustered together along the top of one of the sound barrier walls. They looked scared.

After finally testifying at around 10 pm I returned via the same route. It was a beautiful, cool evening. Along a very developed section of the trail I caught a glimpse of what I'm quite sure was a fox, running into a narrow patch of trees between some apartments and the 4-lane road. Life must be tough for them in the burbs. There's lots of food sources, but lots of big, 4-wheeled predators.
posted by Bruce Wright at 4:50 PM #