Snag

On a Sunday in October, three Rose City Bluff Restoration volunteers were working near the tall snag when crows alerted them to a red-tailed hawk sitting on the top of the snag. Soon the hawk dove to the ground at the base of the snag, then came back up to a lower limb. The hawk had a mouse in its beak. Sad for the mouse but lunch for the hawk. This reminded us that seven years ago the area might have been too thickly covered in blackberry brambles for the hawk to hunt there. One day the snag will fall and the hawks will move on and the mice will have better luck. In the meantime we hope we can continue to keep the area free of brambles and that folks who frequent the bluff trails continue to benefit from the community-wide and ongoing effort to provide access to nature on the golf course, however temporary. Here are two views of the snag, 2019 (left), and with fewer branches and less bark, 2024 (right). There are many more woodpecker cavities now than there were in 2019.