Hawk Two

You gotta swoop on that thing

There’s a young Cooper’s Hawk who likes to use my feed on birds at my bird feeder. Or attempts to, at least. I haven’t seen them catch anything. They’ve swooped, to no avail, and watch for prey from a high branch while squirrels freeze against the tree, and Blue Jays scold and mock them.

The last time one visited, a Blue Jay mimicked a hawk’s cry and hopped from branch to branch! I’d heard them do this when trying to scare other birds away from food, but I’d never seen one harass a predator of that size. If you don’t believe me, watch:

It may be a juvenile, but it’s still a big predator who typically noshes on Blue Jays because they aren’t the greatest fliers. My yard’s been visited by a larger (possibly female) Cooper’s as well, but this was the smaller one, on two different days. The “puffier” ones are from the day the Blue Jay harassed them. You can see how they have their tail fanned out in the video, as well. I’m not familiar with this behavior, but maybe the hawk was being harassed by Jays and Crows earlier, and it was trying to look more menacing.

Floofy Cooper

This hawk has been around so often, that if I step into my yard and don’t hear House Finches, Starlings, and Dark-Eyed Juncos twittering, I look for a hawk. This morning, a Red-Bellied Woodpecker was chipping away at branches. I may not get Pileated Woodpeckers at my feeder like some people but I’m very grateful for the visitors I get. Ever since that first Northern Flicker arrived, and I had to look up what it was, I’ve been feeding and enjoying the presence of every bird from Grackles and Robins and the Mockingbird who yelled at me incessantly all summer, to the Ruby-Throated Hummingbird who buzzed in.

So much so that I indulged in a little retail therapy, and purchased a high end set of binoculars: Vortex Razor. The difference between those and the Nikon Prostaff 7S binoculars that I bought in 2021—after seeing that Northern Flicker—is more than I ever expected. Stronger colors, better detail and magnification, ease of use. The Nikons are no slouch, either.

Normally, when I walk Timber Creek, I have my Nocs monocular or the Nikons. After my medical procedure, I can’t ride the bike for a while, so I took afternoon walks by the creek, and I noticed some black and white waterfowl that I couldn’t identify with the monocular (it’s still great to have because it’s easy to keep in a coat pocket.) So, I returned with the Nikons. With those, I could tell that the birds were Hooded Mergansers, cute little waterfowl with iconic round plumes on the back of their heads, and a stripe .

When the Razor arrived, I headed straight to the creek to try them out. And I noticed the improvement long before I reached the water. I heard two woodpeckers yelling at each other (or me) and zeroed in on a Downy and a Red-bellied, seeing details that I normally only could discern through my camera’s zoom lens. It left me, as they say across the pond, gobsmacked. So I hoofed it to the water, and luckily, a pair of Mergansers were there. I could see how the white spot looks more like a stripe, when they don’t have the crest all fluffed out!

And I got an even nicer surprise. I’d been hearing a Belted Kingfisher scold me as I approached this spot, but rarely saw them, except for a flash of gray-blue, and maybe the white band on their neck. This time, I saw her. And I say “her,” because with the Razors I was not only able to locate her distant perch down the creek, but I could see the light brown “belly band” the females have. I sat and watched her a while.

And I noticed that except for her, the birds were quiet. That’s because a Red-shouldered Hawk was across the creek, watching. I had seen a squat brown bird fly over there before, but I was unable to locate it. Now I could not only find it, but tell from the coloring that it was most likely a Red-shouldered, and not a Red-tailed. (This also explains why I haven’t seen the Great Blue Heron who usually hunts here.)

I’d see a Red-tailed the next morning. I took the new glasses out to the quarry behind Blueberry Hill, just to see what I could see. There’s a garden with feeders, where songbirds congregate, and a radar tower where a Raven has been known to perch. I saw neither, except for some Starlings and a Mourning Dove, as I headed to the patch of the quarry where they dump felled trees, that becomes a wetland in the summer, with phragmites and grasses. I’ve seen Blue Grosbeaks and an Orchard Oriole here before, plus Turkey families and more common birds. This morning, all was quiet.

Which reminded me to look up. Across the way, in the highest tree, was a large hawk that I believe is a Red-tailed. This was at full zoom, and the flying photo isn’t well focused, but I think the large beak and white underfeathers signifies a Red-tailed:

Red-tailed Hawk?

This one tolerated my ogling for a while before moving to another spot inside the pine forest, where I could not see it, but knew it was there because two Mourning Doves refused to budge an inch as I walked directly under their perch. Was I trying to flush these two McNuggets for the hawk? Maybe.

I don’t remember which birder called them “McNuggets”—because they are not so bright, and end up in a six-piece box with some Szechuan sauce in a hawk’s Trans Am with T-tops at the drive-thru more often than not—but I can’t shake the moniker. These two were brave and smart McNuggets.

Once the hawk was hiding, I heard White-throated Sparrows and Song Sparrows, but it was too gloomy and cold for the birds to leave the dried out patches of high grass and be seen. I can’t wait to take these nocs out to Forsythe Wildlife Refuge!

On Sunday, I’ll share my trip to Parvin Lake, where I saw adult and juvenile Bald Eagles, Mute Swans, Buffleheads, and Mergansers in abundance. They were all shy, and the better binoculars would have been very welcome.