Close encounter

As I was walking to the store today I noticed a big bird flying in toward a low branch on a tree in the parking lot outside English High school. I walked over to the other side of the street and in right under the tree. Unfortunately I had only my cell phone and not my real camera (and the gray daylight outside was very bad for photography in the first place), but I've never been so close to a hawk before, close enough that I could say that we looked into each others eyes. Very intelligent hawk eyes, that was.

He was only 6-7 feet over head of me, and I was happy that it didn't fly away. Looking down on the ground I found the reason, a dead squirrel lying in the grass next to the pavement. My theory is that the hawk had previously killed the squirrel but had not had time to finish it, and now the hawk waited impatiently for me to get going so that he could finish his or her meal.

On the way back I looked under the tree. No sign of either squirrel or hawk.