This morning Hank was in the kitchen minding his beeswax while eating his breakfast when he started frantically motioning for me to 'come here *now*' I walked over to see a hawk on our deck.
It's times like this that make me wish I carried my camera on my neck 24/7. I tippy toed to get my camera and by the time I returned the hawk flew to a tree just off the deck.
I apologize in advance for the picture quality...our back door is covered in dog slobber and the kids' hand prints.
I looked in my Peterson and Audobon guides, and I looked online. It looks to me like either a Sharp-shinned or Cooper's Hawk. We actually saw this guy sitting on our fence earlier this week.
Eyeballin' my babies
Some folks may think it's cool to have a hawk visitor; I am *not* thrilled. Both birds tend to eat song birds like Jays or robins while a Cooper's Hawk will eat small mammals if the food supply requires it. Or maybe my chickens....
If you're my friend on Facebook then you've heard about my bear woes. Yep, a bear has been spotted on our near our property a few times.
The bear is an anomaly. He came off the mountain looking for food, didn't find here so he moved on- well, no sightings in a while so we're guessing he moved on.
The hawks however, have changed their migrating habits over the years. Instead of 'going south' they're hanging out at bird feeders for easy food. We're bird watching geeks, and I'm not excited about the idea of some stinkin' [though beautiful] hawk eating all the birds we'd like watch.
We're going to have to do some reading to figure what we can do to safely and legally discourage our new neighbor from taking up residence here.
Remember Mr Hawk, chickens are friends, not food!
1 comment:
Hmmm... They do wreak havoc. Our neighbors here had a Coopers Hawk nesting in their giant oak tree. Bunnies weren't an issue the gardens that year--I guess that was a good thing. And most of the neighbors discovered that if they moved their bird feeders under an overhang, the birds continued to visit regularly.
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