Sunday, January 21, 2018

Visitor at my feeders

Hello and a late Happy New Year to you all. Let me preface this post by saying that if pictures of a raptor bother you, please move on. Hawks aren't everybody's thing but I find them very cool. And interesting. I'm not often able to get many great photos of them but I caught a few decent ones only yesterday.

I'd come home with a small load of groceries and while I was unloading them onto the kitchen counter, I happened to glance out the window to see a hawk perched directly outside on the dogwood tree by my feeders.





I hunched down in the kitchen and crawled to the window, lest he see me and fly away. I keep my camera there at all times while I'm at home, and I carefully maneuvered the long lens in between my geranium and ivy pots, snapping the few photos you see here.




I was greatly satisfied to get one of him ruffling his feathers here.

I'm using the term him loosely, as I'm not sure whether this is a male or female. And I was also having trouble deciding whether this was a Cooper's or a Sharp-Shinned Hawk. If it's the latter, then it's probably a female, as they tend to be larger than the adult males. And this was not a small bird.

I'm going to go with a female Sharp-Shinned.



It's not often that a hawk will show up at my feeders looking for an easy meal, but when they do, it's nice to have the camera nearby. If I see this one return too many times, I'll take the feeders down for a couple of weeks as I don't want to encourage this kind of behavior. Hawks will come to backyard feeders but they tend to get most of their diet elsewhere. 




 Coolness.

After about ten minutes of being crouched on my floor, I felt the need to get up. And the hawk immediately flew away just as I'd suspected.




She landed in the dead dogwood tree outside outside the breakfast nook and I managed to shoot this through the window. But I thought maybe I could do better. So I put on my shoes and a light jacket and went outside. It went up to  56 degrees yesterday. I almost put on my flip flops. Ha. It was zero just a few weeks ago. 




I managed to get close enough to the tree and get a few shots before she flew off.




Look at that red eye.

Dang.




I got almost right under the tree before she departed and was glad with these shots.




My husband used to get really excited when a hawk would come into the yard.

Or when he would see one along a roadway.

Or whenever he would see one, actually.

So hawks tend to remind me of him. And a couple of things happened after he passed away that had to do with hawks and owls. But that's another story for another day. Suffice it to say that I sometimes think that certain birds (or their feathers) are a sign from the other side. 

And on that note, I'll bid you adieu ~

~ along with the wish that your year is one filled with more good than bad. 

And I thank you for stopping by today.




Your friend,


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