Great Day for Birding at the Mortensen Mansion
So far this morning, it’s been an excellent day for bird watching here. Early this morning, three Chickadees invaded the feeder on the back deck, and just a few minutes ago, as I was taking an envelope out to the mailbox to mail, I startled a small hawk. I was unable to make an exact identification, and the bird wasn’t to eager to pose for a picture, but it appears to have been either a Cooper’s Hawk, or a Sharp-shinned Hawk. Very cool.
Post Revisions:
There are no revisions for this post.
November 13th, 2006 in
Flutterings
WOW!!!
Were you able to get any pics of the chickadees before they fluttered away?
‘Fraid not. I’ve been working in the living room all morning, getting gear put away, etc.
AAAAAAAAh my little chickadee………hang around long enough and you will get your pics. They love the mornings.
they are a day brightener…but maybe it’s not that bad that you startled the hawk. If it ever gets real, real quiet in your back yard…nothing at all moving or peeping, look up in the tree tops and you’ll almost always see a hawk. They will eat small birds, but other birds don’t tend to be the hawks first choice. ‘Course the chickadees aren’t taking any chances! I guess it’s one of those “circle of life” things.
Actually, Cooper Hawks do eat other, smaller birds as a “first choice.” They’ll often nab ‘em in flight. Frightening, I guess, if you’re a little chikadee.
[...] This is a Cooper’s Hawk, seen here on the neighbor’s back fence. I mentioned before that I had flushed him out of the front bushes. Cooper’s Hawks usually dine on smaller birds, like the sparrows, chickadees and wrens that hang out at our feeders. Squirrels are a little large for one of these fellows, generally, though they will occasionally nab smaller rodents. [...]