In June I witnessed some bird behavior that I had never seen  (or heard of) 
before and my fiance, John, witnessed the same behavior again in  July, so I 
thought I'd post about it and see if anyone else has seen something  like this.
 
My sighting (in June):
I was kayaking on the Potomac heading downstream toward the takeout  at 
Anglers.  I didn't have binoculars with me so I couldn't ID the exact  species 
involved but what I am sure of is that there was a hawk flying around  being 
mobbed by smaller birds.  As we watched this drama play out, one of  the smaller 
birds actually grabbed onto the hawk's back, between the wings and  "rode" 
around on the hawk for a good 10-20 seconds before either coming to its  senses or 
getting shaken off (not sure which).  I was  thrilled.
 
John's sighting (in July):
He drove away from our house in Cabin John Gardens and immediately  (on our 
street) saw a hawk, again being mobbed by much smaller birds (he  thought 
sparrows but again, no binoculars so no confirmation).  And as he  watched, one of 
the small birds grabbed onto the hawk's back and rode it around  for a good 
10-20 seconds.  John was thrilled - and he called me immediately  so I ran out 
with my camera.  Too late to witness the rodeo but not too  late to get a shot 
(rather distant) of the hawk, which I'm pretty sure was an  immature 
red-shouldered.
 
So does this hawk rodeo take place as a sort of regular  thing?  Are we 
hosting some sort of daredevil subspecies of hawk-riding  small birds?  Whatever it 
is, I hope I see it again!!
 
Sarah
Cabin John, MD
BirdNerd3 at  a*o*l*c*o*m
www.pbase.com/sarahbee