Fledglings are abundant here in late summer. They aren’t the cute babies just hatched, and they aren’t the beautiful birds they will become. They are awkward teens, developing some adult feathers but still with some baby fluff and coloration. I enjoy watching them grow. The scrub jays (now Woodhouse’s scrub-jays) are among my favorite, because they are here year around, and will eat peanuts on the patio table while I’m sitting there.
This fledgling Woodhouse’s scrub jay in the early morning light shows some of the beauty it will develop as it becomes adult.
Fledgling Woodhouse’s Scrub Jay
These jays will come quite close for peanuts!
Fledgling Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay – “I can grab that peanut before the woman sees me!”
You know how beautiful adult robins can be. I’m not sure I had ever paid much attention to fledgling robins, but I had a great deal of empathy for this one!
Fledgling Robin
A few days later I saw this one. I appeared much more majestic in the tree top, lit by the morning sun. I do not know if this were the same fledgling or not.
Fledgling Robin in Early Morning Light
This fledgling house finch managed to look quite regal – to me – atop a sunflower seed head. He had already eaten a fair amount. He looked quite pleased with himself.
Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay and California Scrub-Jay Are Now Two Distinct Species
Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay is Little Jay’s new Species name, as of July 7, 2016.
Little Jay has a Big New Name
The official word is from the American Ornithologists Union. The two new species were originally lumped together as “Western scrub jay,” but for some time there has been talk of splitting that group. Small parts of Nevada see some overlap of the two, but beyond that location, location, location is everything.
Here in New Mexico, a scrub jay is Woodhouse’s scrub-jay. This makes identification easy for me. For my friends in Nevada…sorry.
I don’t want to mislead readers into thinking I discovered the species split while casually perusing the latest bulletin from the American Ornithologists Union (although I am sure I have friends who do). A great resource is Greg Gough at the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. I had talked with him a couple of years ago, and again just recently when I was working on Cooper’s Hawk Courtship Display. He sent me an email this morning advising me of the species split.
Another Woodhouse’s scrub-jay fledgling from a previous year, now with a a new species name:
My Cooper’s Hawk Book Is Now Available at Albuquerque’s Wild Birds Unlimited
My Cooper’s hawk book, Cooper’s Hawk Courtship Display, is now available at the Albuquerque Wild Birds Unlimited at 7200 Montgomery Blvd NE, 87109. I am very pleased that the paperback book is now available locally, not only because the Cooper’s hawks are found in large numbers here, but because this remarkable display took place in my very own back yard. Serendipity on a Sunday afternoon…
Front Cover, “Cooper’s Hawk Courtship Display”
For interested friends and readers not in the Albuquerque area, Cooper’s Hawk Courtship Display is available in both Kindle and paperback formats at amazon.com:
I hope interested friends in the Albuquerque area will stop by Wild Birds Unlimited on Montgomery and support an Albuquerque business that is supporting local photographers and authors.
Individual prints from this Cooper’s hawk courtship display may be purchased at my portfolio site.
Cooper’s Hawk Courtship Display Now in Paperback as Well as Kindle at Amazon
Cooper’s Hawk Courtship Display is now available in paperback format as well as Kindle format at Amazon.com. This was a very unusual display, one I was able to catch in photographic images almost by serendipity.
Both formats contain 32 images of this young hawk’s display. A friend wrote last night
I just read it and loved it! The last few images looks like he was bowing at the end of his performance. Amazing! I’m so glad you caught this.
Another friend noted in a review
The most interaction I ever got from Cooper’s Hawks is when they would often bring their catches and sit on a branch that extended over our deck and eat dinner with us.
The Cooper’s Hawk courtship display Susan captured is what makes this book so special and fun. It’s a short visual chronicle of a display rarely given a private exhibition to anyone but a female hawk.
The paperback edition is $12.99. The Kindle edition is $4.99. The title is part of Amazon’s MatchBook program; anyone who purchases the paperback may purchase the Kindle for $1.99 instead of $4.99. Suitable for all ages.
Cooper’s Hawk Courtship Display Now Available as Kindle on Amazon
Cooper’s Hawk Courtship Display is now available at Amazon in a Kindle version. A paperback edition is also coming.
Can be read on most devices with the free Kindle app. (See end of post for link.)
The volume contains 32 images taken on August 3, 2014. At the time, I knew I had witnessed something remarkable. I knew it was a very intense encounter. Initially, I took it to be some type of territorial display.
This spring, after doing some reading and going back through the images, I came to realize it was something quite different. The behavior is described in the literature, but this on the ground (more precisely, in the trees) display is not well documented photographically.
The encounter with this beautiful young hawk was serendipitous. The display was something I knew nothing about until I saw it that day, and it was almost two years later before I grasped its meaning and the insights it gave into the life of a male Cooper’s hawk.
Young Male Cooper’s Hawk
In the past couple of years I have had the opportunity to see and to photograph some rather amazing events that I will remember for the rest of my life – the Blood Red Total Lunar Eclipse of September 2015; the Alignment of Jupiter and Venus in the early morning hours of 2015; and I would add this hawk encounter to that list of things that became important to me as observations of life.
Young Cooper’s Hawk’s In-the-Trees Courtship Display
Courtship display did not even enter my head as I photographed this young Cooper’s hawk putting on some kind of display in a large juniper tree in my neighbor’s back yard. I knew I had never seen anything quite like it, and I felt very lucky to have photographed it. I posted some of the images some time ago, and then things in my life got busy. Then they got even busier.
At the moment, I am still busy, but, at least temporarily, things seem somewhat stable. 2016 has started off great in terms of productivity with photography and photo essays. Color vision is my current passionate interest. In working on that, however, I came across the images of the hawk display. Over time I have come to realize what that display was: a courtship display. This behavior is described in the literature, but photographic documentation is scarce. I decided to take a little break from the color vision, and publish the images, both in paperback format and Kindle format. This is the first volume in a series, “As Seen in New Mexico…”
“Cooper’s Hawk Courtship Display” will be available in both formats at Amazon some time in June (mid-to-late). I’ll post when they are available at my Amazon page.
This is the Kindle cover, as well as the front cover for the paperback:
Kindle and Paperback Cover
Was this young male just confused, or was there method in his madness??? Stay tuned…
Garden joys abound in the high desert, even with the typical spring winds, this time of year. For the past several months, I have been very busy with projects of my own choosing, driven to work by no one but myself. Snail mail for required proofs for one of the projects has given me a kind of enforced relaxation time. Last evening I set one goal for today, to enjoy my back yard.
For the past several days I have seen cedar waxwings, a very infrequent visitor to my yard, drinking at the bird bath. I have noticed them at around 7:00am, so last evening I set my camera with plans to try to photograph a cedar waxwing. When I first got up I watered all the container plants and then filled the bird feeders. By that time it was almost 7:00am, so I sat down on the patio with my camera and a cup of coffee. Immediately I saw the doves, finches, and sparrows that are frequent visitors here, and a little male black chinned hummingbird drank at one of the feeders, not really bothered by my presence. At 7:07am the magic I was hoping for happened. This cedar waxwing appeared in pyracantha, on a branch that allowed me to photograph it without distractions that would have been present at the bird bath.
Cedar Waxwing, an Uncommon Visitor to My Garden
It flew away at 7:08am. It had given me one minute to obtain the portrait I had hoped for.
After the cedar waxwing flew, I saw the first female black chinned hummingbird of the season. The females arrive about two weeks after the males, and the timing was perfect. She was thirsty! She drank, and drank, and drank. A male hummer watched her from his guard post, and did not interrupt her breakfast. When she finished, she flew into a large rose bush near where I keep the hummingbird feeders. Year after year I always thought it possible the hummers nested there, but I have never seen a nest. Maybe this year…Because at that point, the male who had been observing her began the flying loops of the hummingbird mating display. Those are always so much fun to watch.
Finally, sparkling green trees early in the morning. They only look like this for a few minutes, but they also are garden joys.
Sparkling Trees in Early Morning
Thank you for joining me during my forced relaxation time. 🙂
Albuquerque hawks, right in the middle of the city, are common. The part of Albuquerque in which I live is known for its high concentration of Cooper’s hawks here in the “urban forest.” in August of 2014 I had a prolonged encounter in my back yard with a young Cooper’s hawk. Since that time, it has been easy to just consider similar appearing hawks to be Cooper’s hawks. This year, however, it has become clear that I am being visited regularly by a beautiful sharp shinned hawk. Not that they are always easy to tell apart, but I am relatively certain that the images I am going to post first are of a sharp shinned hawk, and, given the relatively large size, probably female.
Sharp Shinned Hawk
This hawk has been seen often in the past month or so. I now managed a good look, and feel comfortable with the identification as a sharp shinned hawk.
Sharp Shinned Hawk Landing
These now are some images of a juvenile Cooper’s hawk, with whom I had an extended encounter of August 2014. Part of that encounter was an impressive display of some type, which I have documented elsewhere. At the time I took it to be a territorial display (which it might have been), but I’ve also come to wonder if this juvenile was also putting on a courting display. I’m showing parts of that as individual images, because it allows the viewer to see the underparts in some detail, although from a somewhat unusual perspective as the hawk “mooned” me. 🙂
In this first image, note the pattern on the tail feathers.
Cooper’s Hawk. Note the pattern on the tail feathers, as well as the rest of the undersideCooper’s Hawk, Showing Underside in DisplayCooper’s HawkCooper’s Hawk
These images probably make you wonder, “what is so difficult about telling them apart?” In many ways they really do look alike. A female sharp shinned can be as large as a male Cooper’s. Adults and juveniles of both have different appearances. But, if you are fortunate to have them periodically drop into your back yard, differentiating them becomes – sometimes – a little easier.
Keep in mind that this is a juvenile Cooper’s hawk and an adult sharp shinned hawk. But, note the shape of the head; the relative lengths of the neck; the position of the eyes. Some of the other differences you see here may be related as much to differences in maturity as much as to real differences between the two, but I think the differences are pretty striking when someone has the luxury of seeing them for a few minutes as opposed to passing through overhead in flight. The sharp shinned hawk seems to go for the small song birds. The Cooper’s seems to prefer doves, and this is a difference that has been noted by others as well.
Juvenile Cooper’s HawkSharp Shinned Hawk
One thing is for sure: the “urban forest” of Albuquerque, along with the bird feeders placed by residents, make an attractive environment for hawks. I am thrilled to know I have had two different kinds of hawks visit me. Just one more thing I love about living in Albuquerque!
The roadrunner, a member of the cuckoo family, is the official Bird of the State of New Mexico. They are abundant even within the city of Albuquerque. They are regular visitors to my yard, using the ubiquitous block walls as superhighways. Unlike people, who seem to walk in the streets rather than on the sidewalks in this neighborhood, the roadrunners make great use of sidewalks and garden walls, and seem to be in the streets here only when crossing! They have smartly adapted to an urban environment.
One recent afternoon I caught sight of the young Cooper’s hawk just hanging out in what seems to have become one of its favorite spots in a pine tree, which does provide good cover for it. I was amazed that many little birds were at the feeders I provide, blissfully unaware of the presence of the hawk, who would soon be looking for dinner or an afternoon snack. I grabbed my camera and set out to photograph the hawk. As I usually do, I left the lens cap on, planning to remove it when I was settled into a chosen spot for photographing the hawk.
Silly me! I walked out the door, and about six feet to my right was a roadrunner with a hapless lizard hanging from its beak. Yes! Get that picture quick! Uh, no, remove the lens cap! In the time that took, the roadrunner swallowed it prey. Missed that one! But, the roadrunner did hang around for a few pictures before running off to another yard.
Greater Roadrunner. Look at that beak, capable of snapping prey in half.Greater Roadrunner. Look at those feet!
I went out to photograph a hawk hiding in a tree, and instead got a roadrunner in the open and in the light. Not a bad deal overall. 🙂
The Arizona Game and Fish Department has a nice video of roadrunners in that state:
Correction 10/08/2015: This is a Sharp Shinned Hawk and Not a Cooper’s Hawk!
Young Cooper’s Hawk
The Cooper’s hawk is an accipiter that has adapted to life in what has been termed “the urban forest” of the northeast part of Albuquerque. Here, in a limited part of the city, their concentration is as great as in any of the “natural” habitats. What you see in this image is the type of environment in which you might see them.
Young Cooper’s Hawk
Those of you who have been regular readers here know of a rather prolonged encounter I had in August of 2014 with a young Cooper’s hawk. I had seen them passing through the yard sporadically before and after then, but I really became interested in them at that time. I kept waiting for another prolonged, intense encounter with one of these beautiful and impressive birds. A pair was known through the summer to have set up housekeeping at the arroyo at the end of the street, so I thought that sooner or later a young one might appear.
You can’t plan these things. This afternoon I was rushing around, trying to get some place on time. I had everything ready to go, and glanced out. Well, you can’t just ignore these wonderful things – any wonderful things – when they drop in, no matter how unexpected at the time. I hurriedly changed lenses, and made a few images.
I expect – perhaps I should say hope – to see more of this bird in the coming months.
