Our Cooper's Hawk

[Pleater]

My back garden is about the size of two handkerchieves, but just this afternoon I noticed the robin and some great-tits were in the apple trees. The thrushes and blackbirds are collecting nest materials, the wood pigeons have been around. I hear owls and foxes at night, and one fox took shelter under the trampoline for a while.

Last autumn the goldfinches were in the gardens along with other seedeaters, and all those buzy pecking holes in the apples, so despite its size it gets a lot of avian visitors to collect what there is on offer.

Sometimes there is a grey squirrel on the fence, but I go out and scare it off whenever I can.

Is it my imagination or weren't hawks carried on the right hand in 12/13th Century England - particularly when flown from horseback - as the left hand was used to hold the reins.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

[mull]

Is it my imagination or weren't hawks carried on the right hand in 12/13th Century England - particularly when flown from horseback - as the left hand was used to hold the reins.

Anne the Pleater :ootd:

While I was not there, most old paintings I have seen show the bird on the left glove. Manipilating the jesses and handling the bird requires a fair bit of dexterity and most find it easier to use their dominate hand to do so while the bird sits on the off hand.

Joe

[MacBean]

There is a large, crow -like black bird that lives in one of my palm trees; I forget which kind of bird it is.

Is the bird quite musical? If so, then it is a long-tailed grackle. They are everywhere in the southwest.

[Bugbear]

Is the bird quite musical? If so, then it is a long-tailed grackle. They are everywhere in the southwest.

Oh, no. This is much, much bigger than a grackle. Probably bigger than a crow, though sounds a bit like the caw of a crow. They catch baby pidgins and small birds, hold them in one claw, and peck and bite them to death. Someone told me once that they are abundent down in Mexico, but I'm not sure.

Perhaps I will look into what kind of bird that is; I haven't been much interested in birds. He has flown right over my head and I can tell that he is a very large bird.

* I'm really not sure how to identify birds, so I'm having a little difficulty searching on the web. *

* I finally figured out that they are ravens. End of mystery. *

[Lachlan09]

Excellent photos !

[Livingston]

Just moments while reading the last new post here, ago a car drove by and I glanced out the window. Right behind it a red fox went trotting across the street. I watched it for a while as it explored the school grounds across the street from the house. If Joyce had been awake I would have either asked her to bring the camera down or gone running upstairs to get it with the long lens on it for a picture.

[LANCER1562]

This was taken at the Dunsmuir Highland Games in Oakland, CA a couple of years ago.
I believe he is a snowy falcon.