Andrew Clem home
Andrew Clem banner

Blog post


Monthly archives
(all categories)


Andrew Clem archives

November 17, 2004 [LINK]

Sharp-shinned hawk!

Sharp-shinned hawk One of the Sharp-shinned hawks that has been menacing the small birds in our back yard returned this morning, and this time it posed for a long enough time that I was able to get my camera ready. It was only about 20 feet away, stalking the bush where Goldfinches and a Pine siskin were taking refuge, but the overcast skies and the window screen made for less-than-ideal photographic conditions. The other photo I took was blurrier but shows the squarish tail tip, the main feature that distinguishes Sharp-shinned hawks from Cooper's hawks. The latter are bigger, but since female hawks are usually bigger than the males, it is often hard to tell male Cooper's hawks from female Sharp-shinned hawks. (The third species of the Accipiter genus found in North America, the Northern goshawk, is relatively rare.) You can tell this is an adult by the mottled orange and white plumage on the front side and legs; immature Accipiters are streaked brown and white in front. Jacqueline shooed this predator away as soon as the camera clicked. I'm sure it will be back for further photo-ops in coming months...


Posted (or last updated or commented upon): 20 Jan 2005, 11: 37 AM

(unformatted URL)
      .



This post is over a week old, so comments are closed.


© Andrew G. Clem. All rights reserved. Your use of this material signifies your acceptance of the Terms of use.


Hits on this page (single blog post) since July 2, 2007:

Category archives:
(all years)



This (or that) year's
blog highlights

Blog highlights have been compiled for the years 2010-2012 thus far, and eventually will be compiled for earlier years, back to 2002.


Explanation

The "home made" blog organization system that I created was instituted on November 1, 2004, followed by several functional enhancements in subsequent years. I make no more than one blog post per day on any one category, so some posts may cover multiple news items or issues. Blog posts appear in the following (reverse alphabetical) order, which may differ from the chronological order in which the posts were originally made:

  1. Wild birds (LAST)
  2. War
  3. Science & Technology
  4. Politics
  5. Latin America
  6. Culture & Travel
  7. Canaries ("Home birds")
  8. Baseball (FIRST)