Red Tail Hawk Spotted Outside Teddy's

Noon is the witching hour in Danbury on Thursdays for Danbury Lions Club members, because that's when they show up for their weekly meeting at the Danbury Holiday Inn.

Rick Gottschalk, a long-time member and photographer, was walking into the Inn a few minutes early, and he spotted a new statute at the front door.

He kept walking closer and he saw a very lifelike Red Tail Hawk. He walked closer and finally realized it was alive. His hands were full of camera equipment to shoot a picture of that week's speaker, but he backed away from the door.

He dropped the equipment behind a car and loaded the right lens. He stood up and snapped a photograph. He walked a few feet closer, and snapped another photograph. He walked a few feet closer and snapped another photograph.

"I got so close, I finally realized if the hawk defended itself, I'd have a face full of talons," Gottschalk said.

He said by now he'd watched Lions members driving into the parking lot, looking at odd old Rick, snapping pictures of the Holiday Inn front doors.