BIRDS WHOSE NAME STARTS WITH A “C”
This morning I woke up to the sound of squealing birds. I went to the window and I could not see anything, but I could hear birds squealing — loudly enough to be clearly heard through closed windows. I was sure there was a hawk down there somewhere. I couldn’t see anything. A lot of small birds nest in the huge forsythia hedge at the back of the yard (the usable part with something like a lawn). Sure enough, eventually a big hawk emerged. He wasn’t eating anything. Small birds like to nest in the hedge. The hawks can’t fly there.
I know everything has to eat including hawks, but I’d just as soon they don’t eat my little friends, though that is the way it works in the wild. I also didn’t have my glasses on, but the only time I’ve heard the birds get that frantic sound has been when a predator was close. The hawks are probably their most fierce foes because they fly and some of the smaller hawks, like Cooper’s Hawk and the Sharp Shinned Hawk, are amazing flyers and love eating little birds.
Everything seems to have survived and I gave them an extra large portion of black sunflower seeds this morning.
I was surprised I couldn’t find many local birds whose names begin with C. I thought there would be more. At least among the birds I’ve photographed, this is basically Carolina Wrens, Chipping Sparrows, Chickadees, and Cardinals. And Canada Geese, though you have to go to the river or one of the ponds to see them. There are others, of course, but I don’t have pictures.
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Categories: birds, Birds, flying, Gallery, Photography
Great gallery once again. Yes, hawks have to eat too but at least I have Mourning Doves they can snack on in my yard. Circle of Life. Too bad you didn’t add a photo of the Cooper Hawk. Nothing new on our feeders today but we have a Pine Warbler hanging around and an Eastern Phoebe that has been here since the summer. 🙂
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I’ve seen the Cooper but never close enough to get a shot of him. Hawks don’t come close to the deck. The big ones like our driveway, though. It is, I guess, I nice flat place to chow down. I always see them while hauling groceries. Also, I think the Duke barking at them behind the French doors keeps them back a distance.
Or maybe that people come in and out regularly. I HAVE seen them, though. With a long lens, the Cooper is easy to spot because of that white breast. Only hawk with that coloration. The Sharp Shin is even small than the Cooper and I actually have several shots of him, but not close enough for anyone else to know what he is. I know because I saw him, even though he was too far for the lens to get details.
I’ve seen a LOT of hawks and quite a few eagles. American Eagles. You can’t miss them. Their flashing white breasts make them very conspicuous. Garry got a good shot of one near the marina I showed yesterday. They live all along the BIG rivers and some parts of the coast (where the cormorants haven’t taken over all the fish), but not in the valley. The Blackstone doesn’t have big enough fish for them. They do live up on the Merrimack which is a much bigger and deeper river in the north of the State, but the Blackstone is too small for such a big bird. We feed a lot of Herons, though. They are happy with the baby trout. I’m pretty sure some of them get bigger, but I haven’t seen any large ones. Someone must. There’s a lot of fishing going on.
We have a lot of mourning doves too and they do make excellent dinner for the hawks. They are shockingly dumb birds, but I feed them anyway. Completely non-perching which is how come our deck is also a feed bin. Yuck. Birds are so MESSY.
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