Things you don't expect to see on a college campus, part 4

I was out walking across the Austin College campus this morning – it is the Sunday after Christmas and the college is closed, so I pretty much had the place to myself. As I was walking I noticed a small murder of American Crows, sometimes on the ground, sometimes in the trees. (We occasionally get Fish Crows on campus, so you have to listen to them to be sure which one it is) I lost sight of them, but in a few minutes they started calling like crazy. All of them. I thought, there must be a predator, so I started walking toward the sound. I couldn’t see them, but they were still calling like crazy. I rounded the corner of a building (Sherman Hall) and I could see them in the branches of a sycamore tree. I still didn’t see a predator, but I thought it is probably the broad-winged hawk that has been hanging around campus for a few weeks. It had been seen nailing the fox squirrels that are so common on campus. After a minute or two, sure enough, there went the hawk, with the crows in pursuit. The hawk flew across Grand Avenue and perched in the branches of a red oak in front of the President’s home. I walked back across campus to my office and grabbed my camera, and got back in time to get a photo of the broad-winged hawk, this time perched on a street lamp. The crows had gotten bored with the hawk and moved on.