Hawk Spa

One of the great things about camera traps, is the glimpse into the behavior of wildlife when they are quite sure no one is watching.

I know that birds take baths, many of us have just fantastic bird baths to encourage this!  However, it seems that passerines are a bit less shy than raptors about bathing in public.  I never had the honor of seeing a hawk take a bath before I checked the cams last week.



This bird took it's sweet time in the creek.  From the time it first triggered the camera, until it flew off, it was in the water about 20 minutes, just before 10am.  That water is really chilly, it is in a nice shady riparian area.  It seems like it was moving in nice and slowly, getting it's toes and tail feathers used the the water, before going in for the full plunge.

The rest of the videos from this set are from wood ducks, floating upstream and downstream in front of the camera, and repeating, and repeating.  At least they are very pretty birds!  Hopefully we'll see them with babies in a couple months.

Red Shouldered Impressions

In the My Side of the Mountain post, I mentioned we have a nesting pair of Red-Shouldered Hawks nearby.

Usually I just hear them, and see them riding the thermals above the valley.  But recently, they have been hanging around much closer to the houses.  In February my son looked out the kitchen window and casually asked "What's that bird?".  I was in the other room and asked "What does it look like?"  His response was "A Turkey", but I was thinking he probably would have just said "Turkey!" to begin with if that is what it was.  I came in and looked, half expecting a Turkey, and was shocked to see a Red-Shouldered Hawk flapping it's wings to keep it's balance on the ground on the steep hillside.  It looked like it had landed trying to catch something on the ground.  We only got a chance to snap this one picture with my phone before it flew off.   Just think of it as my version of a homage to Monet.

Impressionism Red Shouldered Hawk

Luckily, this bird or it's mate returned this morning.  It perched on the branches of a recently deceased tree, and worked on prying off small branches for about 10 minutes.  I imagine it is working on a nest nearby.

Red-Shouldered Hawk Pulling on branch

I was thrilled to get a chance to watch the bird work on this project, and get a few more photos.  My son got to see it also.

And in hindsight, it kind of does look like a Turkey.

Special for JDS, here is an actual Turkey photo taken a couple of weeks ago, as follow up to the comments from an earlier post.

  Happy spring all.