Just watched a hawk eating squirrel for about 25 minutes in a tree on the Great Lawn in front of Shapiro. A sizable crowd of people gathered and were talking, but the hawk seemed largely unconcerned and focused on eating. After about 25 minutes, he dropped the squirrel he had been eating. It seemed like he had not intended to do this, because he watched it as it dropped and then vocalized. After about 40 seconds, he vocalized again. By this time, 4 Blue Jays had assembled in a nearby tree after two of them had begun making what I can only assume were alarm calls. Two of the four then landed in the same tree as the hawk and continued calling. Again, the hawk seemed largely unaffected. He had moved to a different branch and cleaned his beak and talons, and then eliminated. After he eliminated, he actually flew DIRECTLY TO THE BRANCH where the four Jays had been gathering. They scattered, and in about 8 seconds, he flew off towards South Street. I have some pictures of the hawk eating I took with a friend’s camera, and I’ll upload them if anyone is interested.
It was awesome.
I heard the commotion, but did not witness the hawk attack myself. I did examine the squirrel corpse afterwards and it seemed that the hawk did not consume much of it.