Right after the chairs, I heard an unusual hawk's cry--more like a cat's meow than a hawk's scream. I spotted this guy up above, and another in the trees. They were calling to each other. I inherited a love for birds and birding from my Grandma, and I've got a life-list of birds. I knew that they weren't red-tailed hawks, but I didn't know what they were. Prairie Falcon? No. Swainson's Hawk? No. Definitely not a Perigrine or any sort of falcon, so it had to be a hawk. Not a Harrier, or a Ferruginous, or a Goshawk...what were they? So, it was off to the internet to figure out what they were.
Aha! They were juvenile Cooper's Hawks! They were amazingly beautiful, and the one on the antenna let me watch him for quite a long time. They actually look almost identical to Sharp-Shinned Hawks, but can be distinguished by the half-white belly and the muted stripes on the tail with the white ruffled end. Sharp-Shinned have denser spots over their entire belly, and very distinct tail stripes, but otherwise they look almost exactly alike. The adult birds are even harder to tell apart--glad these made it easy for me!
I'll bet your neighborhood is full of amazing jewels. All you have to do is look...enjoy!
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