Predatory dinosaurs of Baltimore - the real raptor red

[GSP1954@aol.com]

Today was unusually mild, so took a walk through the big, Olmstead designed 
Druid Hill Park around the Baltimore Zoo. Had just passed the zoo entrance and 
was in an open area with rowhouses across a main city route about 100 yards 
away. Saw a large bird flopping on the ground. Too big to be a pigeon and too 
brown to be a crow. It was a hawk that had just caught a squirrel. I stood 
about 
40 ft away, the hawk barely paid attention to the clumsy bipedal one. For 
about 10 minutes it continued to beat the rodent to death, its wings spread out 
on the ground classic raptor style. It then dragged the corpse a few feet to 
the base of a sappling and started to feed. Even when I walked by about 30 ft 
away the hawk hardly paid me attention. Watched for at least 20 mins overall, 
left the predator to finish its afternoon dinner in peace. 

Not sure what kind of hawk it was. It was fairly large, the size of a big 
crow. Maybe too big for a pigeon hawk, have seen one around here for years. A 
dull brown uppersides, off white underneath. Wonder if it was a fully grown 
juvenile. 

G Paul