The food chain in operation.
It seems our bird feeders are doing double duty. Not only do they feed seed to birds, they feed birds to birds.
This may be a peregrine falcon* camped out in a backyard pine, stripping the feathers and flesh from an unfortunate dove, no doubt a visitor to the feeders hanging from a maple tree by the picture window. Hal thinks so, anyway, and he’s more knowledgeable about these matters than I am.
“Whaddaya taking pictures for? You with the police?”
We’ve seen a Cooper’s hawk working the neighborhood, but this is our first glimpse of a peregrine on the job. I wanted to get closer for a better shot with the Sony RX100 III, but I didn’t want to interrupt his/her dinner. Maybe it’s time to get another DSLR, start putting this wobbly economy back on its uncertain feet.
Funny thing is, the neighbor kids had just been visiting (at a safe and sane socialist distance) and we were talking about the wildlife we’d seen recently, from bugs to bobcats to bullsnakes. We didn’t notice the feathers falling from the pine until mom had come to collect them for their own dinner.
* Or a sharp-shinned hawk. Or a Cooper’s hawk. Or a very small Hawkman looking for his own DC movie, which would puzzle me mightily, because DC movies mostly suck with malice aforethought, even more so than Marvel movies, which is a very high bar indeed where suckitude is concerned, and no self-respecting raptor would have anything to do with either of them.
Tags: Cooper's hawk, peregrine falcon
May 8, 2020 at 7:44 am |
We’ve had one lurking here too. Whenever the hawk shows up, the birds high tail it outa here.
May 8, 2020 at 7:56 am |
Oh, yeah. When you hear that wffffffpppbbbblllllllfh! that means all your feathered buddies just beat it, you know you’ve got company.
May 8, 2020 at 8:21 am |
Around my neighbourhood, if i want to look for a Cooper’s, sharp-shinned, redtail, or owl, i just listen for the crows.
Nice shot of the peregrine!
May 8, 2020 at 11:10 am |
Nice pix. The Sony strikes again. I’m not sure if it is a peregrine falcon, cooper’s hawk, or sharp shinned hawk. Based on the tail pattern, and that peregrines usually hunt in treeless areas, I’m thinking sharp shinned hawk. This might help you decide.
https://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/3313.htm
“If I have told you this story before, don’t stop me. I would like to hear it again,” Groucho
May 8, 2020 at 11:22 am |
I was thinking sharp-shinned too, since peregrins aren’t all that common around here, but the other raptors are fairly commonplace. He wasn’t chunky enough to be a Cooper’s — that dude I have seen on the ground, peeling a dove like a banana.
May 8, 2020 at 11:46 am |
Yeah, sharp-shinned. We have lots of common raptors around here. red tails are like robins- everywhere.
I saw a sharp-shinned trying to take a robin on the wing once. It was close quarters in the small wooded clearing next to a school. The robin made for the building and dove down and away and the hawk nearly splattered on a window. Mr. Redbreast out-flew him and escaped to live another day.
May 8, 2020 at 11:56 am |
It a sharp-shinned. We’ve got the shinnies, coopers, too. The red tails are like crows. They’re everywhere.
I once witnessed a sharp-shinned trying to take a robin on the wing in a small clearing next to a school. Robin took a lot of good swoops and curves, but didn’t shake him until he made straight for the building and peeled off at the last instant. The shinnie nearly splattered, and Mr Redbreast flew off to live another day.
May 8, 2020 at 11:56 am |
Two replies. I really know what I’m doin’ eh?
May 8, 2020 at 1:26 pm |
That is a Cooper’s, not a peregrine.
May 8, 2020 at 1:45 pm |
Tough buggers to ID, but I’m leaning toward sharp-shinned based on the size of the bird and the shape of the tail. Here’s another shot.