These top-of-the-food-chain birds do not eat my songbirds very often. The best one for catching songbirds is the Merlin and I very rarely see those!
Monday, February 17, 2020
Sharing Some Raptor Love
I have been lucky this late winter to spot some great raptors while driving or hiking or just looking out my back yard! These stately creatures are so dramatic looking and imperious. They know their place in the grand scheme of things.
I spotted this "fellow" in the photo above in the distance near the mouth of the river as we worked our way down a bumpy country road to a remote boat launch that hunters use. It is an immature Bald Eagle. He does look a little ratty in the close-up below.
Another day and a trip to one of the nearby state parks I saw this beauty along the roadside as we pulled into the parking lot. He "may" be an immature Cooper's Hawk. I could not see his front as he has his head is cranked back to see why we were stopping the car.
This final photo below was a visitor to my back yard which I think is a Red-Tailed Hawk. He was hard to capture through all the branches and I did not want to get close enough to make him fly.
These top-of-the-food-chain birds do not eat my songbirds very often. The best one for catching songbirds is the Merlin and I very rarely see those!
These top-of-the-food-chain birds do not eat my songbirds very often. The best one for catching songbirds is the Merlin and I very rarely see those!
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Great photos. Love those amazing creatures.
ReplyDeleteFascinating birds. Hawks are so hard to identify. In the air I just call them all red tail as they seem to be the most common. I sometimes find those barred tail feathers, could be from several hawks or owls they all seem the same. Coopers hawk would be my best guess too.
ReplyDeleteWe have merlins around here. They are deadly hunters. Once close to here, a mourning dove suddenly fell onto my windshield, I slowed down,he sort of shook his head and took off. Looked up, there's a merlin above me. I'm guessing the dove was too heavy, dropped it, and the dove lived to fight another day.
ReplyDeleteWe have all the raptors you name here but I'm not very good at identifying juveniles.
We have had Sharp shinned hawks raid our bird feeders, but not often. We love the bald eagles, osprey, and Marsh hawks we see on Whidbey Island.
ReplyDeleteThey are all very interesting birds in how they make a living.
ReplyDeleteRaptors always seem to be particularly interesting.
ReplyDeleteThey are amazing, although i wish they only went after rodents and never other birds.
ReplyDeleteGreat photos, the Cooper Hawk's stare is stunning.
ReplyDeleteI love these raptors, they are magnificent birds. Hawks, owls, all important in the circle of life.
ReplyDeleteFascinating photos! When we lived in the country a few years as I was growing up, later surrounded by woods, a large river, lake and national forest I recall seeing quite a variety of birds. Now, many years later, though I'm in the foothills but a mile or so from wooded areas, I see a more limited variety of birds, mostly the smaller ones -- occasionally a hawk, once in a while I hear an owl at night. One thing that is significantly obvious is an overall decline in the number of birds I see in the past twenty years. Most obvious is the absence of crows. In the early morning a flock of crows would be in our neighborhood yards, but no more. There are fewer of the other varieties, too. I tend to think of this decline as a "the canary in the coal mine" indicating changes in our environment to which we need to pay attention as potentially having meaning for the future of humankind.
ReplyDeletegreat photos. we have red shouldered hawks here that occasionally come to my bird bath during the long hot summers. I've only seen one snatch a small bird once. we also get Louisiana kites in the summer.
ReplyDelete