Rough-legged Hawk “Playing”

This post is about behavior.  Please don’t expect high quality images… Last March I found this juvenile (I believe) Rough-legged Hawk along the Antelope Island causeway on a cold morning after a light snowfall.  It was perched on a windrow of debris consisting mostly of piles of old brine fly pupae casings.   For a while the bird seemed content to simply rest and watch me.   But soon it apparently got bored…     and walked about two feet to my right to investigate a clump of fly casings (red arrow) that had been cemented together by melting snow that had re-frozen during the night.     The hawk reached over to grasp the clump with its talons…     retrieved the clump,…     transferred it to its beak and then instantly tossed it to the ground.  I assumed that was that, figuring the bird had thought it might be something edible, then discarded it for good when it wasn’t.  But that wasn’t what happened.     The hawk grabbed the clump with its talons once again…     and then seemed to contemplate for a few seconds about just what to do next.     Which turned out to be something like “give the clump a toss and see where it lands”.     The hawk immediately started walking over to where the clump had landed behind the mound of fly casings, where it can’t be seen in this image.  It used its wings for a little more stability as it negotiated the hill of debris.  …

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