What is a Seahawk, anyway?
Have any idea how many times I've been asked that question?? Thanks to
a Seattle newspaper archive, now we know!
Note: If anyone knows the newspaper source, please let me know so we can give credit where credit is due. Thanks!
Not (we hope) an endangered species
What, Seattle sports fans were asking in bewilderment, after learning that their pro football team finally had been given a nickname, is a Seahawk?
To bird-watchers, seahawk is another name for jaeger, a rather aggressive bird seen occasionally a mile or so off the Pacific Coast during autumn, often in pursuit of gulls and terns in hopes that the smaller birds can be menaced into dropping their food for the jaeger's personal benefit.
Other works describe the jaeger's hawk-like flight as a marvel of speed and agility and - for smaller birds - intimidation.
Those characteristics doubtless are what the football-franchise owners had in mind when they chose "Seahawks" as the name for the Seattle entry in the National Football League.
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