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Birds > Steve Wolfe  > The Red-Tail Hawks of Kaiser Hospital, Harbor City, California > June 11 --- What a Day It Was!
I arrive as usual on Saturday around 4pm. There isn't any activity among the hawks that would mark it as anything other than a normal late-afternoon. Two of the hawklets (the oldest and the youngest) are on a ledge of the main hospital building looking inside the windows; I don't see Jen but she seems to prefer being by herself. Could her week-long stay with the Wildlife Rehab folks after crashing into the window have somehow changed the dynamics among the siblings? For whatever reason, I rarely if ever see all 3 hawklets together anymore. While looking at the 2 on the ledge, I notice one has what appears from a distance to be...a snake...

(A brief pause in the action for a quick reminder. The South Bay Wildlife Rehab has been following the Kaiser Red-tails from the beginning and has been indispensable in helping them whenever they seem to need human assistance. They are all volunteers and most of the funding comes from their own pockets, so please help with a contribution. Their website is at http://www.sbwr.org and their phone # is (310) 378-9921. Thanks Ann, Jen and all the other wildlife rehabilitators!)
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She looks up defiantly at the Big Lens taking in all the action...
...then buries her razor-sharp bill into the pigeon. Charles Preston writes, "[the raptor bill]  is needle-sharp, and the shearing edges along the sides of the upper bill act as knife blades, slicing off bits of flesh brought up to them by the lower bill." Sounds like an avian shearing machine...
Meanwhile, the youngest hawklet sits dejectedly on a nearby railing, with only bloody talons and a tufted beak to show for its time with the pigeon.
She begins the process of de-feathering...
While in the background  her brother broods over the inequities of life.
I zoom in on him to capture the somewhat-comical look he has; how did he ever get that tuft  wedged in there?
I'm now less than 10 feet away from the female hawklet and am moving around to get a better angle, but she's totally unconcerned  with my presence.
It's a good thing this is Saturday as this area sees a lot of foot traffic on the weekdays.  She feels free to take her time with her stolen meal...
She begins the process of de-feathering...
She begins the process of de-feathering...
She begins the process of de-feathering...
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Keywords: june
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