18 April 2025

Posts Tagged ‘Cooper’s hawk’

Drama in the Blue

Thursday, November 3rd, 2022
Northern Harrier, Beech Hill Preserve, Rockport, Maine, 03 November 2022.
Northern Harrier.
Cooper’s Hawk and raven, Beech Hill Preserve, Rockport, Maine, 03 November 2022.
Cooper’s Hawk and raven.

The temperature had barely warmed into the 40s (F) by the time dog and I hit the hill this morning. A blue, blue sky, not much of a breeze, not a lot of bird sounds early on. But as we neared the summit, things began to get interesting.

En route up there I heard (then got a glimpse of) a flock of south-bound geese. Had a hermit thrush and a couple of woodpeckers. And that’s about the time a Northern Harrier appeared. The marsh hawk was (as is their habit) floating low above the barrens, seeking out a mouse or vole. And then I heard the guttural croak of a raven—the kind that almost sounds like the bubbling up of a deep gooey liquid.

Spied the raven, which was flying west above the hill. A Cooper’s Hawk appeared, and the two circled each other suspiciously. Then the harrier rose up to join the party, and all three birds circled and veered and dove and tried to avoid each other. Down here on terra firma, I couldn’t’ve been more excited at this display.

Twenty species today. Who’d’ve thunk it in the month of November?

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 8:09 a.m., I hiked all trails.

1. American Crow*
2. Hermit Thrush
3. American Goldfinch
4. Black-capped Chickadee
5. Canada Goose
6. Hairy Woodpecker
7. Northern Flicker (v)
8. American Robin**
9. Yellow-rumped Warbler
10. Red-breasted Nuthatch
11. Downy Woodpecker
12. Dark-eyed Junco
13. Eastern Bluebird
14. Northern Harrier
15. Song Sparrow
16. Blue Jay (v)
17. Common Raven
18. Cooper’s Hawk
19. White-throated Sparrow
20. Brown Creeper (v)

Elsewhere

21. Wild Turkey

Mammals

Eastern Chipmunk
American Red Squirrel

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

†First-of-year

Coiling Up

Monday, September 12th, 2022
Common Yellowthroat, Beech Hill Preserve, Rockport, Maine, 12 February 2022.
Common Yellowthroat.

The forecast called for a morning overcast, and there were clouds—but there was also sun. And birds. Things are coiling up like a spring, awaiting the sweet release of fall migration.

Notable: a Cooper’s Hawk, a pair of sharpies, three species of corvid, vultures, and a gang of four Red Crossbills atop the summit spruce grove.

Supposed to rain tomorrow, but not early, so a morning hike it will be.

Beech Hill List
Beginning at 7:49 a.m., I hiked all trails.

1. Blue Jay** (v)
2. Tufted Titmouse (v)
3. American Crow*
4. Red-eyed Vireo
5. Black-capped Chickadee
6. American Robin (v)
7. Eastern Towhee
8. Gray Catbird**
9. Common Yellowthroat
10. American Goldfinch
11. Cooper’s Hawk
12. Purple Finch (v)
13. Yellow-rumped Warbler
14. Red-breasted Nuthatch
15. Song Sparrow**
16. Sharp-shinned Hawk
17. Common Raven (v)
18. Eastern Wood-pewee (v)
19. Eastern Phoebe
20. Herring Gull*
21. Turkey Vulture
22. Red-bellied Woodpecker (v)
23. Savannah Sparrow
24. Red Crossbill
25. Cedar Waxwing

Elsewhere

25. Mourning Dove

Mammals

Eastern Gray Squirrel
Eastern Chipmunk

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

†First-of-year

Nippy

Monday, April 11th, 2022
Rock Wren, East Millcreek, Salt Lake City, Utah, 11 April 2022.
Rock Wren.

Saw hawks and a wren this unseasonably nippy, overcast, windy morning. The wren was hopping about in the rocks around the old abandoned Monarch Quarry, the hawks were sailing in the wind. A red-tail, in fact, looked to be hunting for rabbits at the quarry. (Saw a cottontail, early, but before the hawk showed up.)

At home, the robins are still constructing a nest—possibly in the ivy around the chimney.

Gonna snow tonight.

Grandeur Peak Area List
At 8:02 a.m., sun time, I hiked a few hundred feet up a mountain.

1. American Robin*
2. House Finch**
3. Rock Pigeon*
4. Spotted Towhee
5. Pine Siskin (v)
6. Woodhouse’s Scrub-jay
7. Northern Flicker (v)
8. Black-capped Chickadee
9. Song Sparrow* (v)
10. Black-billed Magpie*
11. Turkey Vulture
12. Cooper’s Hawk
13. Red-tailed Hawk

Elsewhere

14. House Sparrow (v)
15. Lesser Goldfinch (v)
16. California Quail

Mammals

Mountain Cottontail
Mule Deer

(v) Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere

 
Bird Report is a (sometimes intermittent) record of the birds I encounter while hiking, see while driving, or spy outside my window. —Brian Willson



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