We’d seen it before, many weeks ago. A big bird of prey with black and white bands on its tail. The rest of it was paler than a Red-tailed Hawk, but we only caught glimpses of it flying over, and not a long enough look to identify it. We thought it was stalking the ground squirrel that moved in last summer. Maybe it was, because the ground squirrel hasn’t been around for a few days now.
Day before yesterday, we saw the big bird perch on top of the nearby telephone pole, and we got binoculars out for a really good look. Its breast, the undersides of it wings, and its beak are indeed paler than a Red-tailed Hawk’s. Its breast is almost pinkish or strawberry blond.
It’s a Red-shouldered Hawk, which is apparently found all over the eastern part of the country and along the California coast. I’d never seen one here before, not close enough to identify anyway. Our dominant hawk is the Red-tailed.
I wonder how long it’s been here, because last summer we watched what we think was a clutch of young hawks taking their first flight from a neighbor’s palm tree. Maybe this is one of the parents, back again to nest in the same tree. Or looking for the squirrel, or more squirrels. Poor squirrel, if so.
Our local birds continue to intrigue me with their variety and number. I’ve read, in a Harvard study, that this area is one of the most biologically diverse in the continental US, and that doesn’t surprise me, just basing my opinion on the birds.
I saw lots of owls from the road, when I used to leave for work while it was still dark. I’ve seen plenty of Black Phoebes here the past few weeks. I can’t seem to walk outside without spotting one of them. We have what I think may be Purple Finches, a variation from the House Finches we knew in San Diego, though I’m not certain. Some kind of small woodpecker likes the neighbor’s palm tree. We even have a small flock of feral parrots in the neighborhood, though I haven’t seen or heard them yet this year.
I’ve also seen lots of Mourning Doves, all my life, as I’m sure most people in North America have who pay any attention to wild birds. I’ve heard their mournful song since I was a girl and learned to recognize it. But this morning I heard a dove that sounded different, so I looked out the back window and saw a Ringneck Dove, also known as a Ringed Turtle Dove, under our pine trees. These doves aren’t natives. In fact they’re supposed to have been domestic for the past 3,000 years or so. But I suppose quite a few may have escaped into the wild at one time or another.
I just heard it again, out there, hiding in the pines and cooing, reminding me to post this. I wonder if it’s moved in to nest. If so, I guess it had better watch out for the Red-shouldered Hawk.
1.
The birds around my place are so sophisticated they don’t even bother to chirp at Emerson.
Comment by Mark — February 23, 2008 @ 3:21 pm
2.
I’m going to see if I can send you a birdwatcher picture. You’ll enjoy it, I think.
Oh, dear! I’ve lost your email address. Oh, well. Some other time.
Comment by Sarah — February 23, 2008 @ 4:33 pm
3.
The picture I wanted to send you is the last one in yesterday’s Rhubarb blog. Just for you!
Comment by Sarah — February 23, 2008 @ 4:39 pm
4.
Interesting array of avians. I guess you see more interesting things when you know enough about what you’re seeing to know it is interesting. I wouldn’t have identified those birds or probably realized the Ringneck Dove was something different. A few weeks ago, on the way down the path to the road, I did nearly trip over a Ringneck pheasant. That’s pretty hard to miss. Feral parrots sound scary however. I imagine them swooping down at people cackling “Pieces of eight! Pieces of eight!”
Comment by Eric Mayer — February 23, 2008 @ 9:21 pm
5.
The first time I saw a purple finch, I thought it was a sparrow that was bleeding. We have lots of them now, and their behavior is much like sparrows.
We had a red shouldered hawk that made a nest in a neighbor’s large birdhouse - long abandoned. So we had the privelege of watching the young hawks leave the nest.
Cas
enjoy!
Comment by cassie-b — February 24, 2008 @ 8:10 am
6.
Hi Barb,
Oh jeez, I JUST read this poem on Carol Peters’ blog this morning, and then I came over to read your blog….coincidence? Anyway, it brought me to my knees so thought you’d like to read it…
[from Daisy Fried’s My Brother Is Getting Arrested Again, 2006]
The Hawk
On July 21, 2005, Rep. Allyson Y. Schwartz (D., Pa.) voted for a bill to extend the Patriot Act for another 10 years. President Bush hailed the vote.
From the playground’s biggest tree’s biggest branch
the hawk through daylight drops to the monkeybars
top deck, claws sunk in plunder. The hawk
shakes its gray-brown feathers, leans, with its beak
unzips the little squirrel suit, probes into the hot mess.
Nothing bothers it. The raincoated tourist grabs
his wife’s wrist knobs, gabbles a strange language,
transfixed by the bird, and the scaly foot closes down.
A mom clamps her hand over the eyes of her kid,
his face so small her hand covers it. She hustles him
bellowing away; he wrenches at her fingers,
will break them, will, if he can, to see. Watchers
gasp, groan, video. “I love this,” a man whispers,
hands in his suit pockets. “I’m a hunter but I never
get to hunt anymore, so I love this!” The hawk
from the carcass extracts a bit of bloody intestine.
Flips it long, thin, looplike, over his beak. A gewgaw.
Tilts, eats. Gets another. Loops and eats again.
My Brother is Getting Arrested Again (Pitt Poetry Series)
Comment by Bev Jackson — February 26, 2008 @ 5:47 am
7.
I observed one squirrel yesterday in the expected location, so it appears the hawks haven’t yet caught him. He or she does seem more skittish.
Comment by Ken — February 27, 2008 @ 12:08 pm
8.
Though I love seeing these hunting birds, too, one of my friends (who has pet chickens) has been being stalked by a hawk for a couple of weeks now and it totally freaks her whole family out…
Comment by violetismycolor — March 3, 2008 @ 5:19 pm
9.
Eric, I just want to say, isn’t it interesting how “pirate” and “parrot” even sound a lot alike? I would be scared, too, if I thought these were hoards of pirate parrots.
I also sometimes think about the size of the eagles in Lord of the Rings, when I see a raptor gliding high up in the sky, and can’t tell exactly how big it is. All I can hope is that it’s a good eagle, if it’s a giant eagle.
I should post one day about what happened to a group of other adolescent girls and me while walking to school the day after we saw The Birds on television.
Comment by Barbara — March 9, 2008 @ 10:08 am