Recent Visitor

Ever since I put up my bird feeder I've had regular avian visitors. I started seeing birds only 17 hours after putting up the feeder and have rarely had a break since. I love seeing the chickadees, finches, nuthatches, cardinals, woodpeckers and sparrows that flock to the feeder. I have a rabbit that has started coming in the morning, along with numerous ground squirrels and squirrels. But none of them is as exciting as what Jeff saw when he looked out the window this past week.

He was watching Olympics coverage when he heard something loud out the window. He glanced out to see this beautiful bird above. It's either a juvenile Sharp-Shinned hawk or a juvenile Cooper's hawk. They look very similar at this age from what I know. The yellow eyes tell me that this is a juvenile. They'll turn a beautiful red as she ages. From the size I think it's female. She's a bit bigger than a crow which is the average size.

Jeff tells me that after sitting up on the fence for a bit, the hawk flew to the ground and spent some time sunning. It spread it's wings out and hunkered on the ground. No doubt it was waiting for some of the regular sparrows to come back. Coopers and Sharpies regularly eat feeder birds. So this pretty bird was waiting for a meal. After Jeff sent me a text with a picture my next question was whether it had found a meal or not. I'm excited that it's hunting my area. I love that not only does my feeder attract small birds but the big predators come by extension. Such a beautiful sighting. While I wish I'd gotten to see it but  I love all the pictures Jeff took for me.