It was sad and alarming to see two dead hawks in my neighbor’s swimming pool, where his children played. I suspected that anticoagulant rat poisons used in our Berkeley neighborhood were involved. These poisons cause internal bleeding, making animals seek water.
WildCare, a rehab center in Marin County, had the bodies tested at UC Davis, which confirmed that both hawks had been poisoned by anticoagulants. That year, another hawk with anticoagulant poison in its system bled to death on the sidewalk.