Hawks and Hounds

Today I just have a few quick photos to share.

Recently, I wrote about the death of one of my pigeons.  By "my pigeons" of course, I mean the pigeons that hang out in my neighborhood and eat in my yard.  My naturalist friend Kevin was pretty confident that the killer was a hawk -- even though I wasn't able to get any hard evidence at the time.

Well, now I have.  This last week, after something spooked and scattered all the birds in my yard, I took this picture of the culprit, perched in a tall tree across the street.  That day he flew straight threw my yard, even pausing for a second in the cherry tree by my front deck.  Since then, we've seen him perched on the post of our front steps.  He's definitely staked out the neighborhood as his hunting grounds.  With breeding season coming, I suspect the crows are not going to be happy about that.

Earlier this month, I attended the Seattle Kennel Club Dog show, and spent several hours watching my second favorite sport -- Canine Agility.  I love watching the dogs run the course, and one -- this Afghan -- was especially striking.

 

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If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog Books and Beasts, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.

 Many of the original photographs featured on Birdland West are available for sale as art quality prints.  You can check out all of our offerings at http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.  If you see an image here that does not show up on our Imagekind site please contact me directly and I'll let you know about availability.)

Where You Least Expect Them

After a protracted struggle (it actually snowed on St. Patrick’s Day at my house!) Spring seems to be gaining the upper hand around Seattle.  The last few days have been wonderful – and I’ve gone on two long walks with my dogs this week.  Good to be out and about again.  If you go back and look at my posts from last year, you might see that I was quite enthusiastic about the prospects of winter birding.  Unfortunately, it didn’t live up to its promise – not because nature wasn’t cooperating, but because I got wrapped up in other things and let the winter pass without enough observation.  Those “other things” – including an emotionally demanding writing project, ending one business and planning another – were all important.  But I disappointed myself with my unwillingness to brave the cold and dark in search of birds.

Anna's Hummingbird

The one bright spot throughout the winter was my hummingbird feeder.  The Anna’s not only stayed all winter (through snow and storm) but there were more of them here than I’ve ever seen.  One combative little guy staked out our tree and yard as his territory and defended them bravely, but that didn’t stop others from making a run at the feeder whenever they could.

A couple of days ago, I was out on my porch with my roommate and the dogs, enjoying the novelty of sun, when I noticed a hummingbird on the feeder.  It was one of those sights that have become so common I almost passed over it.  But something didn’t seem right.  

My roommate saw it too.  “That doesn’t look like the same hummingbird,” he said.  

This hummingbird – obviously a male – was smaller, and his coloring wasn’t quite right.  I ran inside to get my camera, but by the time I got back he was gone.  I’m pretty sure he was the first Rufous Hummingbird of the new season, back just a little early from his winter in Mexico.  I will be watching for him now, and hoping to get photos.

“Look for surprises among what you take for granted” seems to be the theme so far this year.  There is no more ubiquitous bird in my neighborhood than the Black-Capped Chickadee.  I see them all the time, and as much as I love them, it’s easy sometimes to almost stop seeing them.  When I have the camera, I often think, “One more photo of a chickadee – you have thousands.”  Which is true, I do.  Still, I’ve found surprises hiding among the chickadees before.  A couple of years ago, I found Nuthatches in the chickadee flock in my yard.  So when I started seeing flashes of brown I thought that’s what it must be.

But it wasn’t.

Chestnut-Backed Chickadee

A friend who was visiting watched the feeders with me for a few minutes.  I mentioned the brown interlopers and suggested there might be nuthatches in the flock again.  He wasn’t convinced.

“Those are definitely chickadees,” he said.

Chestnut-Backed Chickadee

He was right.  The next day I started to get photos, and they were definitely chickadees.  Just not Black-Capped Chickadees.  For some reason I had the idea that Chestnut-Backed Chickadees were usually found only in the woods, not around neighborhoods or urban parks.  I was wrong about that.  I asked my naturalist friend and he assured me it was quite common for them to form mixed flocks with Black-Capped cousins in the spring and early summer.  But I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen them in my yard before.  

Pine Siskin

 The same holds true for the Pine Siskins I wrote about in an earlier post.  I’ve seen them around Seattle, but they’ve never been common in my neighborhood – until this year, when they’re everywhere.  Change, it would seem, is in the air.

Pine Siskins

So, encouraged by the new discoveries, I spent a little more time on the deck this past week, and snapped a lot of photos.  I found some familiar, but entertaining fellows – like this puffed up House Sparrow, and a much shier Song Sparrow.  But once again, it was a case of finding the unexpected among the most familiar.  When I looked through my sparrow photos, I found this.

Do you know who this is?

I had to get help with this ID, but if you said “Gold-Crowned Sparrow”, you’re right.  It’s a juvenile, born last year and almost ready to molt into his full adult plumage.  There’s no chance at all that I would have spotted him with my naked eye.  

So far this year, I’ve added four species to the yard list (Gold-Crowned Sparrow, Pine Siskin, Chestnut-Backed Chickadees, and Cooper’s Hawk) and three to my lifetime list (Snow Goose, Chestnut-Backed Chickadees and Gold-Crowned Sparrow).  

Not a bad start at all.

(And I’ll get back to that hawk very soon.) 

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If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog Books and Beasts, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.

(Many of the original photographs featured on Birdland West are available for sale as art quality prints.  You can check out all of our offerings at http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.  If you see an image here that does not show up on our Imagekind site please contact me directly and I'll let you know about availability.)

CSI: Pigeon Town

Not the bird from last week, a young Cooper's Hawk from a nearby park last winter.

About mid-morning last Friday, while I was working at my desk in the back of the house, I heard a crow in the front yard screeching his displeasure at something.  It went on for several minutes, and I thought about going out to see what was bothering him -- following the lead of agitated crows usually leads to something interesting -- but this was only one crow, not a mob, and I was focused on the blog post I was writing, so I didn't get up.  A few minutes later my roommate Dan called me, from the front yard.  He had just gotten home, and he was whispering into his cell phone, "Dude, get the camera.  There's a small hawk in the tree outside.  Hurry."

I got the camera (which is not stored conveniently on the table by the door any more, since my dog Zeke decided to chew up one of my lenses) but by the time I got to the window, the hawk had noticed Dan and taken off.  I didn't get to see him.  However, Dan paged through the field guide and quickly identified him as a Cooper's Hawk.  That made sense, because I know there are Cooper's Hawks in this area.  I've seen them more than once in the park where I take Zeke to play.  I was mildly disappointed that I didn't get to see him myself, since I've never actually seen a hawk in our yard.

A few hours later, we were getting ready to go shopping, and Dan took the dogs out before we left.  I followed him a few minutes later and he told me, "Don't look over the side rail.  There's been a death."

My first thought was that it must be one of the rats that live under the fence.  I haven't seen them in a while, and I've been a little worried about what happened to them.  But unfortunately, this was a death that hit even closer to home.

It was one of the pigeons.

Anyone who reads my blog probably knows that I am fond of pigeons.  I take care of the little collection of "misfit" pigeons who hang out in this neighborhood -- mostly because they are centered around Timmy.  I have a history with Timmy, and feel some responsibility for him.  And I enjoy watching the pigeons when they come to eat (and often squabble) on my front deck.  They don't hang around here otherwise -- even Timmy has stopped hanging around much other than mealtimes -- so they aren't a nuisance to me or the neighbors.  I often see them perched on the power lines behind the house, watching.  When I put food down they begin to swoop in.

The "victim", fortunately, was not Timmy or Timmy's Friend.

The dead pigeon was not Timmy, or "Timmy's Friend".  (You can see my earlier posts about Timmy and the other pigeons here and here.)  In fact, judging by the wing patterns, it wasn't a pigeon I was familiar with.  I examined the body and the "crime scene" -- and I took lots of photos, which I'm going to spare my readers, since they are pretty gruesome.  Suffice it to say that the pigeon was apparently eating on the rail when it was attacked.  It looks like it was killed almost instantly, because it was on the ground just below the rail.  Its head was gone, and its crop was still filled with undigested seed which it had obviously just eaten.  There were blood and feathers around the body, and more at another spot a few feet away, under the stairs.

My first thought was that a cat was the culprit.  There are occasionally free roaming cats in our neighborhood, and any bird lover has to be concerned.  I put off bird feeding for many years because the area I used to live in -- Ballard -- was full of feral and semi-feral cats.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-cat.  But I am anti-outdoor cats.  At the wildlife center where I volunteer, a very large percentage of all the animal injuries that come in -- especially birds -- are cat attacks.  Outdoor cats are an environmental horror story.  But I'll come back to that in a later post.

It didn't even occur to me, at first, that the Hawk killed the pigeon.  But of course, that was the most likely scenario.  So I sent my crime scene photos off to my friend Kevin, who's the staff naturalist at Paws WildlifeCenter.  Here's what he said:

"From looking at the photos of the pigeon, I would say you are looking at the work of a hawk, rather than the work of a cat.  First of all, it looks like the pigeon’s tail and rump feathers are intact.  In almost all cat attacks you will see wounds over the rump and missing tail feathers because the cat attacks from behind as the bird tries to fly away.  Hawks usually hit much farther forward on the body.  Once they have a good grip on their prey, they kill it by biting through one of the cervical vertebrae at the back of the neck.  They then tend to eat from the head down.  Hawks pluck the feathers from the area in which they wish to feed.  This leaves a scattered pile of loose but completely intact feathers.  Cats bite into birds right through the feathers. Feathers are generally pulled away in clumps, usually with skin still attached, and the feathers themselves are often broken or otherwise damaged.  The loose feathers around this pigeon’s body all look like they have been individually plucked, again indicating a hawk rather than a cat."

Sad news.  But on the other hand, I had a Cooper's Hawk lunching in my yard.

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If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog Books and Beasts, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.

(Many of the original photographs featured on Birdland West are available for sale as art quality prints.  You can check out all of our offerings at http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com.  If you see an image here that does not show up on our Imagekind site please contact me directly and I'll let you know about availability.)

 

 

 

Hawks and Crows

Crows coming from all directions to answer an alarm call.

It finally got warm enough in Seattle that I needed to open all the doors and windows last week.  (Friday it passed 70 degrees for the first time since last November).  In the early afternoon I was working in the back of the house when I heard an ungodly racket outside.  I looked out the back door, and saw crows flying in from all directions.  They were cawing and raising the alarm, and it looked like they were headed right for my house.  When I got outside they were wheeling overhead, taking turns diving at the upper branches of the tall dogwood tree next door.  I couldn't see what they were after, but I had a good suspicion what it might be.

I've seen this before.  Even though crows are spread thinner here than they are in the more urban parts of the city, they can gather very quickly in a crisis.  And when the crows are upset, it pays to follow them.  

Once, when I was in the park with my friend and our two dogs, we heard the crows raising hell and followed the sound to a tall tree just off the path.  A  Barred Owl was hunkered down in the crook of a branch, being harried by crows.  Just to make the tableau even more magical, a hummingbird was darting around in the upper branches, picking out insects, oblivious to all the noise the larger creatures were making (as hummingbirds often are). 

Crows "counting coup" on an unseen enemy.

 

You don't always get quite that much pay off, but every time I've ever seen an owl in the wild, it's been because crows led me to them.  And they can lead you to other big predators too.

Red-Tailed Hawk (at bottom) pursued by angry crows.

One afternoon last fall the crows started raising a ruckus.  This time, they were zeroing in on a tree across the street -- one that has an old abandoned crow nest in the top, which you can see in the winter when the leaves are gone.  They swirled around and attacked that tree for half an hour or more, before their quarry got tired and made  break for it.  That time, I was able to chase the fleeing bird with my camera as the crows chased him across the sky.  When I got the pictures uploaded and zoomed in, I could tell exactly what it was:  A Red-Tailed Hawk.

Young Cooper's Hawk from last summer.

 Hawks are not uncommon in Seattle.  I took these photos of a young Cooper's Hawk in Westcrest Park, just up the hill from where I live, late last summer.  While I was watching him, he was calling and responding to at least one other Hawk that I never saw.  As birds go around here, the big hawks like Cooper's and Red-Tails are pretty much apex predators.  Top of the food chain.  Of course, there are Bald Eagles in the city too, but they're more interested in carrion and when they do go after prey it's usually fish -- size and the whole national symbol thing notwithstanding, they just aren't the hunter's that the big hawks are. North of here, in the San Juan Islands, and across the mountains in Eastern Washington, there are Golden Eagles, enormous birds and very serious hunters.  But you almost never see them around the city.  (I've had the privilege of being very close to both Bald and Golden Eagles while volunteering at a wildlife rehabilitation center -- I've also been close to hawks, and have even handled some of the smaller hawks.  But I've never handled anything as big as Red-Tail or a Cooper's Hawk.)

Hawks and crows are on the opposite ends of the sociability spectrum.  Raptors tend to be solitary, or to live as mated pairs.  Both Cooper's and Red-Tails are believed to mate for life, a pair staying together until one of them dies.  But crows are among the most social of birds, and that is really where their advantage comes in.  The larger and more powerful raptors are no match for a mob of crows.  (And mob is really the appropriate word.)  I find this fascinating because it seems so similar to what probably gave humans the edge in our early history -- we weren't stronger or faster or more powerful than most of the animals around us, but we were smarter, and we knew how to work together.  Crow are one of the most intelligent birds, and they seem to understand the value of cooperative behavior.  (I've read accounts of crows hunting in small groups, forcing smaller birds to fly into buildings so they can eat them.)  

I've spent a lot of time watching and following crows.  They almost always lead me to something interesting.

RELATED POSTS

Crows

 Dog Days, Raven Nights

And on BOOKS AND BEASTS

Ravens in Winter

If you like Birdland West, you might also want to check out our sister blog Books and Beasts, which focuses on reviews of books about animals and related topics.

(Many of the original photographs featured on Birdland West are available for sale as art quality prints.  You can check out all of our offerings at http://AlexWashoe.imagekind.com. If you see an image here that does not show up on our Imagekind site please contact me directly and I'll let you know about availability.)