Category: Hawks

A Mish Mash

Timothy Price39 Comments

Dawn

Puddle Ducks

Bottoms up!

I believe this is a Swainson’s Hawk. As shot on the left, cropped, and processed on the right.

Cropped but not processed on the left. Processed on the right.

Willa was laid back tonight. Walter kept his head down with the hawk overhead.

We did not hear or see anything of Nora and Osric tonight. They were either still hunting, or they decided to go out on a TGIF owl date.

Shaved Alpacas

Lady Banks

Lady Banks

Sunset

Drama at Duskfall

Timothy Price45 Comments

Redwing Blackbirds

Willa-Cat-Her pussyfootin’ across our property.

Wile E. Coyote left Wile Etta Coyote behind.

What is Osric Owl looking at?

A pesky Cooper’s Hawk chattering at him like a monkey.

Nora Owl peers out from her nest.

Osric Owl keeping an eye out and hooting a status report.

Moonrise Dawn Birds & Dusk

Timothy Price31 Comments

And yet another Pink Moon rising put on white.

A colorful dawn. Resa’s tree throws out clouds.

House Finch on the tippy-top of the tree.

Rodney Red-tail in Gigi’s Tree.

Cooper’s Hawk fluffed up because it was cold, bleached white in the sunshine.

Dusk’s display

Rodney Redtail

Timothy Price40 Comments

Rodney Redtail (I’m assuming this is a male) has been hanging out in Susan’s tree occasionally, perched above where I hung the nest for the owls. I’m hoping that maybe Roberta Redtail is nesting in the owl’s nest. I won’t climb up there and see if she’s in there. But I can hope she is. Rodney had a stick or something in his beak.

The Hawk Incident

Timothy Price61 Comments

Hawk wing too close for the Bazooka to focus

I was sure I had posted this story in August 2021 after it happened, but I apparently got distracted by my mom’s death and didn’t post the incident with a Cooper’s Hawk. I mentioned the story to Brad, who had posted a story on Brian’s Wildlife Intrigued, and Brad wanted to see photos. It took me a while to find the photos because I couldn’t remember right off hand when the incident took place.

I was out on the beach photographing the pTerodactyl one afternoon in late August 2021 when a dove came flying straight at me with a Cooper’s Hawk on its tail. The dove took evasive action at the last second to avoid crashing into me, which made the hawk do the same thing. I was trying to get photos, but everything happened quickly, and the dove and the hawk were too close for the Bazooka to focus on them since its minimum focus distance is 11 feet. The hawk and dove collided right above my head, but the hawk could not grab onto the dove. The dove flew into the salt cedar, and the hawk flew into the bosque.

I checked on the dove, and it seemed to be okay. As I walked from the river bed into the bosque, the hawk was waiting for me. It flew over me, chattering up a storm, and then it landed on a low branch about 15 feet from me and started giving me a beak lashing up one side and down the other about me messing up its kill. That hawk chattered at me for several minutes, flew to another branch, and chattered at me some more before it flew into the salt cedar to see if the dove was still there.

Cooper’s Hawk flying away after colliding with the dove.

Cooper’s Hawk flying to a tree to scold me as it flew over me.

Cooper’s Hawk telling me off for messing up its kill.

Cooper Hawk flew into the salt cedar to see if the dove was still there.

Vacation Is For The Birds

Timothy Price58 Comments

Juncoku
Hops from branch to branch
Looking out for predators
There’s a Cooper’s hawk

Hawku
Perched on iron arch
It sees prey over yonder
Oops, prey flew away

Sparrowku
Like a ball of fluff
Imitating angry bird
Winter is so cold

Towheeku
On the river’s edge
Dining on Russian Olives
Big seed to swallow

Craneku
Oh, they want to fight
Bumping bird breasts, flapping wings
They showed each other