Swainson's Hawks
Thursday, May 3, 2007 at 06:42PM 
Its probably no big deal for those of you who live in rural areas, but its pretty cool for us city slickers . . . A pair of Swainson's hawks have taken up residence in my yard.
You can see the male in the middle of the picture. He's quite tame, and let me get up close to take this picture--within 20 feet or so. I'll have to dig out my old 35mm Nikon with my 205mm zoom to get a decent photo. He's about the size of a large crow and moved into one of our Eucalyptus trees, right outside our bedroom window.
He and his mate use our bird feeder as a fast-food stop, swooping down and snagging sparrows and finches off the top while they are feeding. Its rather amazing to see a blur go by the window and then look up see a hawk up in a tree munching away on a sparrow. I guess my bird feeder now has a dual-use.
My only complaint is that these hawks are very noisy and they get up in the morning before I do. Nevertheless, they are beautiful creatures and I'm enjoying them immensely. My yard is usually filled with sparrows . . . not any more.
Reader Comments (14)
I'm an east coast birder expecting the main wave of warblers to start any day now.
P.S.: If that Nikon with the 205mm lens has to be "dug out" since it's "old", don't hesitate to box it up and mail it here to Minneapolis. We'd love to have it in the family!
Superlative!
What other site gives us Calvinistic soteriology, amillennial eschatology AND exquisite ornithology?
This is almost too good to be true; the new heavens and earth haven't arrived yet, have they? It's not a dream, is it?
Wayne Rohde
Avid birder for 40 years
Former board member of the Wisconsin Society for Ornithology
The warblers are coming, although so far the wave is just the beginning trickle (a harbinger of good things to come - as in Eph. 1:13f). I've already had Yellow-rumpeds, Palms, Orange-crowneds, Yellows, Nashvilles, Prothonotarys, Common Yellowthroats, Black-and-whites, Black-throated Greens ... and Ovenbirds, American Redstarts and Northern Waterthrush in Wisconsin (12 of a possible 35 spp. in WI). Just wait till next week; it will be a symphony of flycatchers, thrushes, vireos, warblers, etc.!
(Don't you think KR would make a good Ovenbird ... as in "Teacher, teacher, teacher!" - ???)
And remember, good folks, that Mt. 6:26 (cf. parallels) is an imperative; the tense tells me Jesus commands us to be continually engaged in birding!!!
Just for fun I did a cut & paste of your raptor image, enlarged it, did some digital enhancements ... and, though the resolution is low, it looks like your bird of prey may be a Cooper's Hawk, one of our accipiters.
Accipiters like the "Coop" have relatively short wings and long tails (and the image suggests your bird has a long tail), and they dine on other birds - especially at backyard bird feeding stations. The Swainson's Hawk is a buteo, and buteos have relatively long wings and short tails, and feed primarily on small mammals.
Accipiters are also more prone to be in wooded areas, whereas buteos like the Swainson's Hawk are open county birds. Incidentally, the long tails on accipiters are DESIGNED to enable them to navigate their way between trees at fast speeds in pursuit of prey.
I'm not positive about the ID of your bird, but thinking it might be a "Coop." Swainson's Hawks characteristically have a dark chest but light belly, whereas adult Cooper's Hawks have reddish-orange horizontal barring on the entirety of their breasts.
If you get another opportunity to photograph this hawk, I'd love to see the image.
:) :) :)
"(Don't you think KR would make a good Ovenbird ... as in "Teacher, teacher, teacher!" - ???)"
Nah, he's not the hide in the leaves on the ground secretive type. (I know some dispys I wish would do us all a favor and become ovenbirds :)
I was at the Trenton Marsh this AM, which can be fabulous, but stunk today. I ran into one old guy who was at Princeton woods yesterday and said it was incredible...a dozen grosbeaks, a dozen black throated blues, all sorts of stuff. We tend to get the main wave every year right round May 5-6.
My dream is to be birding in Princeton along the canal when the sun turns to darkness and the moon into blood. I'm heading straight over to the graveyard and watch Edwards and Alexander and Warfield and Hodge and all the other guys rise up first, before I go up. Shake a few hands if they resurrect slow enough.
Happy birding!
Could we borrow your hawk, we have a sparrow attacking it's reflection in our bedroom window, over and over and over. You would think it wouldn't have any brain cells left. This is the second one in the past 3 years, they must be relatives.
On second thought, the last hawks that hung around here were eating our chickens. We finally realized that crows were chasing the hawks away so we stopped chasing the crows away. They might eat the chicken feed, but at least they don't eat the chickens.
Reminds me of a clip on _America's Funniest Home Videos_. Family was videoing their little white mouse or hamster or whatever, out in the yard in a brief supervised foray outside of it's cage. "Oh, isn't he cute". Swooooop! A brief flash of something flying by and little Mickey was gone.