Hawk Watch

 

Twice this week my backyard was visited by hawks. Unfortunately I couldn't move quickly enough to get a picture of either visit.  On Tuesday, there were two hawks sitting on the lower branch of the Honey Locust Tree (the tree just in front of the pines on the far right of the picture).  One hawk had landed, and the other plopped down next to it setting up a momentary squabble before they both flew away in a huff.

This morning as I got up to let the dogs out, a hawk, which I was finally able to identify as a Sharp-Shinned Hawk, was facing the house and serenely surveying the backyard as if thinking, "all this is mine."  It was on the fence for several moments giving me an opportunity to positively identify it as a Sharp-Shinned due to its small head relative to its body. Again, I was unprepared with my camera, and it flew off before I could snap a picture.  A moment latter, a squirrel snacking on peanuts, the apparent object of fascination for the hawk, scampered off to the Honey Locust when I let the dogs out.   The squirrel was in plain view of the hawk, but had its back turned, and appeared blissfully unaware of its present danger.

Project FeederWatch is an excellent resource for information on how to tell the difference between a Sharp-Shinned and Cooper's Hawk.

Bird Buffet

As I checked out the feeders this morning, I saw a red-stained area on the snow near a feeder.  A glance through the binoculars revealed downy feathers and blood. 

Something had preyed upon a visiting bird.  Given the downy feathers, scant amount of blood, and lack of a carcass, I suspect the predator was a hawk.  Because I have a large field behind the house and four mature pines, hawks are a familiar site.  I have seen kestrels, red-tailed hawks, cooper's hawks, and sharp-shinned hawks over the years.

This bird may have been taken by either a Cooper's Hawk or a Sharp-Shinned Hawk, as both are known to prey on songbirds at feeders.  The two hawks are challenging to distinguish from each other, but I have seen a hawk with a grey back perched in the one of the pines in the past week and sailing over the top of the house into a neighbor's tree out front just two days ago.  It was one or the other species, and I am determined to figure out which  is visiting my trees as hawks are among my favorite birds.  Hopefully the predation won't become a regular activity.

In summer of 2012, we had a significant drought with little to no rain in the area for nearly the entire summer.  A young hawk visited the dogs' water bowl in the back yard and enjoyed a bath for several minutes. 

Backyard Birding Beginnings

Shortly before Thanksgiving, I established new feeders outside my upstairs and downstairs home office windows after finishing the book, Life List: A Woman's Quest for the World's Most Amazing Birds.

I am a fan of the Wild Birds Unlimited Advanced Pole System, and I have a feeder system near my upstairs office window with two seed tubes, a seed cylinder, a hanging tray, and a finch feeder. 

My yard has been relatively birdless since I took down my feeders after a fence and tree line fire 18 months ago.  Many of the trees and all of the bushes were removed, either due to damage or to replace the fence in the backyard.  I still have some trees  including two white pines on each end of the fence, and some maple trees in the yard, but the shelter bushes are gone.  The heavy equipment and the dogs eliminated  the grass, so I have a clean canvas for planning and implementing a bird friendly habitat over the next three to four years.  And that is why I have started this blog!

Because it has been a good fall here with bird foods widely available in the environment, the birds have been a little slow to flock to the feeders.  It took about a week for the birds to find the feeders and several weeks before birds began visiting regularly. Activity stepped up as the temperatures began to drop and a much colder air mass set in.  In addition to the usual sparrows, I am now regularly visited by house finches, American goldfinches, juncos, cardinals, and blue jays. 

I spotted my first  red-bellied woodpecker, a male, about two weeks ago after investigating an unfamiliar bird cry.  He was hunting for insects under the leaf litter then flying to a small notch in the nearby silver maple tree.  Back and forth he went for several minutes.  I had been disappointed that none of the birds had been interested in the suet hanging from the pole system, so I moved it to the tree near the spot where the woodpecker had been pecking.  It was ignored for another week, until I spread some peanut butter and seeds across it.  Birds are visual feeders, and the seed was "glued" onto the suet feeder with peanut butter to get their attention. First a squirrel found the suet, then the dogs (which fortunately could not quite reach), and finally the woodpeckers!  In the last few days a female red-bellied woodpecker and a pair of downy woodpeckers have been sampling suet and a nearby shelled peanut tube.

Late this afternoon, the first lovely snow of the season moved into the area and blanketed the yard and feeders in a soft white.  Only the juncos were feeding at the time.  They were hilarious to watch as they skated across the yard in search of seed.

I am now, shall we say, completely obsessed with this new hobby.  Since I work from home, the birds invite me to slow down for a few minutes between meetings, emails, and deadlines and remember to take a moment to admire nature and wildlife.

My daughter who is majoring in biology is excited to share in the birdscaping activity because I plan to use environmentally responsible, native Midwestern species in the garden.  Of course I am delighted to share in this activity with her, particularly the digging and manual labor parts.

Over the coming months, I will post about my favorite birding and birdscaping books, my gardening plans and activities, with a few pictures here and there of the birds and their nemeses the dogs and shall I dare mention the cats.