I've been hearing the distinctive sound of a hawk's call for the past few weeks, but was never able to spot the bird. It was always calling from a neighbor's property and hidden by tree branches. Several years ago, I managed to see a Cooper's Hawk in a distant tree, but the only pic I managed to snap of it was somewhat blurry because of the amount of zooming I had to do with the lens of my cellphone camera. I was certainly hoping for a better chance this time.
And that chance finally arrived! I was standing outside on the patio behind my house when the hawk flew into my yard and perched in a nearby tree! I'm not a good judge of distances outdoors, but I was perhaps two or three car-lengths away from the base of the large oak tree in which it was perched about a third of the way up that tree. Fortunately, I had a relatively unobstructed view of it!
There is plenty of small prey for the hawks in this area. Sadly, smaller birds are fair game for them, including the songbirds that sing so sweetly all year long — wrens, sparrows, chickadees, tufted titmice, nuthatches, cardinals, and many others. But they also eat small rodents like field mice and moles, as well as lizards and other things. [1] They can eat all the mice they want, as far as I care, 'cause the mice don't make music. 😆
I live in an area where Cooper's Hawks can be found year 'round. They do sometimes migrate north or south of here, depending on weather conditions and their breeding inclinations. But, they seem to prefer this climate the most. The map at right is from the Wikipedia page about the species.
Borrowing from the folk song "Old MacDonald" [2], I present the following ditty:
𝙾𝚕𝚍 𝚖𝚊𝚗 𝙲𝚘𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚛 𝚑𝚊𝚍 𝚊 𝚝𝚛𝚎𝚎, 𝙴-𝙸-𝙴-𝙸-𝙾
𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚝𝚛𝚎𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚜𝚊𝚝 𝚊 𝚑𝚊𝚠𝚔, 𝙴-𝙸-𝙴-𝙸-𝙾
𝚆𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚊 "𝚂𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚎, 𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚎!" 𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚊 "𝚂𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚎, 𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚎!" 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎
𝙷𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚊 "𝚂𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚎!" 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚊 "𝚂𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚎!"
𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚊 "𝚂𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚎, 𝚜𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚎!"
𝙾𝚕𝚍 𝚖𝚊𝚗 𝙲𝚘𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚛 𝚑𝚊𝚍 𝚊 𝚝𝚛𝚎𝚎, 𝙴-𝙸-𝙴-𝙸-𝙾
And then, a couple days after the above sighting, I saw it again! It flew into my yard with the sunlight streaming down through the feathers of its outspread wings! It was a beautiful sight, but happened so quickly that there was no way I could have gotten a pic of it even if were holding a camera. It landed on a tree branch much higher, and out of sight from my viewpoint, so that fleeting memory is all I have of that encounter.
If anyone reading knows a lot about birds and thinks this is something other than a Cooper's Hawk, I would appreciate hearing about it in the comments. Many websites about birds report that hawks are sometimes identified incorrectly as there are often very small visual differences between some species.
Do you have hawks in your part of the world?
SOURCES
1 Wikipedia: Cooper's Hawk
2 Wikipedia: Old MacDonald
𝖠𝗅𝗅 𝗉𝗁𝗈𝗍𝗈𝗌 𝖻𝗒 𝗆𝖾 𝗐𝗂𝗍𝗁 𝖲𝖺𝗆𝗌𝗎𝗇𝗀® 𝖭𝗈𝗍𝖾𝟤𝟢™ 𝗎𝗇𝗅𝖾𝗌𝗌 𝗈𝗍𝗁𝖾𝗋𝗐𝗂𝗌𝖾 𝗂𝗇𝖽𝗂𝖼𝖺𝗍𝖾𝖽.
thekittygirl arrived on the blockchain in 2017 and has been involved in
many communities during her time here. She co-founded TheTerminal
and LadiesOfHive, is a member of TheAlliance, SilverGoldStackers, PYPT, and others.
Kitty's blog features content on a wide variety of topics, ranging from her collection of pretty rocks/crystals, silver, photos of old barns, oddities, skywatching, flower photos, recipes, cats, and everything in-between.
On a personal level, she is a widow. She enjoys most types of food. most types of music (her favorites are Jazz, Blues, Deep House, & New Age), likes learning new things, and loves watching Mother Moon sail through the sky. She stands proud of the wild, untamed Goddess that she is.
