Goofy 2020

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Here’s one this morning. 
 

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He’s sitting next a blink video camera. I have it turned around now to catch the coyotes and deer.  

[Al Agnew]

We have a pair of red-shouldered hawks that have nested right behind the house for several years now, and they are still here.  I wonder how many red-shouldered hawks migrate.  For a number of years, we had a single rough-legged hawk show up every winter.  It's favorite perch was in a walnut tree nestled among a group of persimmon trees in the corner of our field of warm season grass, and it hunted the field constantly.  Then one year it didn't show up, and we haven't seen one since.

 

[snagged in outlet 3]

39 minutes ago, Al Agnew said:

We have a pair of red-shouldered hawks that have nested right behind the house for several years now, and they are still here.  I wonder how many red-shouldered hawks migrate.  For a number of years, we had a single rough-legged hawk show up every winter.  It's favorite perch was in a walnut tree nestled among a group of persimmon trees in the corner of our field of warm season grass, and it hunted the field constantly.  Then one year it didn't show up, and we haven't seen one since.

 

Get some pics please!

I had a kestrel that my neighbor behind me photographed a couple times sitting on our roof and chimney.  It was only around for 2 years.  

[Johnsfolly]

2 hours ago, Al Agnew said:

We have a pair of red-shouldered hawks that have nested right behind the house for several years now, and they are still here.  I wonder how many red-shouldered hawks migrate.  For a number of years, we had a single rough-legged hawk show up every winter.  It's favorite perch was in a walnut tree nestled among a group of persimmon trees in the corner of our field of warm season grass, and it hunted the field constantly.  Then one year it didn't show up, and we haven't seen one since.

 

For a few years in Columbia we would get a cooper's hawk that would hunt the songbirds that would frequent our bird feeder on the deck. Every so often one of the birds would spook and hit the sliding glass door. Only a couple got killed when hitting the glass.

[ness]

I heard a bump on the window a while back. Went to the door to see what was up and a Cooper’s Hawk had a Grackle in its grip on the back of one of our chairs. Went to grab my camera and when I got back they were gone. No blood or feathers, so maybe the Grackle lived. Or maybe it got carried away and dismembered. 

[Al Agnew]

I've probably told my cooper's hawk story here before, but a number of years ago, I was busy painting in my studio, which has big windows and a bird feeder right outside, no more than 10 feet from the window right where I painted.  I was startled out of concentrating on my painting by a "thump...THUMP" on the window.  Looked out, and there was a cooper's hawk that had just crashed into the window, after chasing a goldfinch into the window as well.  As Johnsfolly said, when a cooper's hawk or sharp-shinned hawk hunts a bird feeder, which they love to do, the birds often spook, see the reflection of the sky in the window, and forget it's a window and not an opening through which to escape.  Well, when I saw the hawk, if a bird could be said to be limping while flying, it was.  It barely made it to a limb about 20 feet on the other side of the feeder, where it sat, hunched over, head down, with its back to me and the feeder.

After a while, it had been sitting still for so long that the birds forgot about it, and started gathering at the feeder again.  Suddenly the hawk raised its head and shook it a bit.  Then it cranked its head around and saw the birds at the feeder.  It perked up.  It very slowly turned itself around on the limb and crouched down like a bird dog on a quail.  I thought, geez, it's going to do it again.  It's going to launch itself at the birds, and chase another one right into the window, which by this point my face was about a foot away from the glass.

Sure enough, the hawk suddenly charged the feeder.  Two goldfinches took off just as it got to the feeder, headed straight toward the window, the hawk right behind them.  The two finches crashed into the window...and the hawk flared, neatly snatched one of them as it bounced off the window, and missed the window by about 3 inches as it turned in midair and flew off clutching its prize!

[fishinwrench]

I have a pair of thermal pane windows on the east side of our living room.  The double glass creates a mirror when the sun comes up, and nearly every single morning there are 2 or 3 THUMPs.  And at least once or twice every month I'll have to go out and kick a dead bird off the porch.    This has been going on for so long that the neighbors cat makes a pass through the yard every day around 10:30 to see if today was the day.  

[jdmidwest]

18 hours ago, fishinwrench said:

I have a pair of thermal pane windows on the east side of our living room.  The double glass creates a mirror when the sun comes up, and nearly every single morning there are 2 or 3 THUMPs.  And at least once or twice every month I'll have to go out and kick a dead bird off the porch.    This has been going on for so long that the neighbors cat makes a pass through the yard every day around 10:30 to see if today was the day.  

Hang a big rubber snake out there on the window.