Birds, birds, and more birds Part I

So I kind of stopped the bird posts because I couldn't type so well with a broken finger, but the finger is doing very well and I'm back to full-speed, so I'm going to try and catch up on my posts.

Before Christmas I had quite a few experiences that I meant to blog about and just kind of never got around to. One day I walked out of my apartment to go to work and as luck would have it, I was running early that morning. So I walked out of the gate and I see a large bird swoop into the tree right next to me. I look up, and it was a hawk. So I chanced it and ran into my apartment to get my binoculars. When I came out he was still there, but I only saw him through the binoculars for a few seconds before he flew away. Still, I distinctly saw a gray cap and kind of slender body. I did the research that night and decided that he was a Cooper's Hawk, but I wasn't sure. Then, the next day I went down to Montrose Harbor to look for him (because I figured if he was at my doorstep, he was from the Harbor) and I ran into another birder who told me he'd seen a Cooper's in the park. I walked around for a while and flushed him out twice, although I didn't get a good look at him. So that was ridiculously exciting for me to have him right out on my street, like he came to see me in particular! :) I told mom that since I had given up birding for the winter (or so I thought), the birds decided to come see me instead.

So, then, this morning I walked out of Mom's house to drive back up to Chicago and I hear this very loud squawk, three times. Then again. I thought at first that it was a Blue Jay because it was loud and all that, but Mom has Blue Jays around her all the time and I knew that wasn't right. So I look up, and right in her neighbor's backyard is a hawk up in the tree. So I grabbed my binoculars and looked at him for a nice long while. This time, I'm able to make the identification almost immediately. Then I confirmed with a few field markers. You have to understand that the Sharp-shinned Hawk is a cousin of the Cooper and almost identical, so you have to look at some indicators. First of all, this Cooper was large, which meant it was a female and it's easier to separate from the Sharp-shinned. Male Coopers and Female Sharp-Shinned are sometimes the same size (males are smaller than females), but this was pretty large, so I knew off the bat it was probably a Coopers. I've posted some photos that illustrate some other field markers: the gray cap on his head usually does connect to the gray on his back. but the red goes further around his neck, whereas on a Sharp-Shinned, the gray comes further around his neck to more resemble a hood. So Coopers = cap, Sharp-Shinned = Hood. Also, the Sharpie has a smaller head and less of a neck, more resembling a Kestrel, where it looks like his head has been sat directly on his body. The tail of a Coopers is longer and the individual feathers have a more curved bottom, whereas the feathers of a Sharpie tail are squared off on the ends. Both Coopers and Sharp-Shinned have notches in their tail, although I think it's more pronounced in the Sharpie, and they also both have a terminal band on the end of their tail, but the Coopers is more buffy colored and the Sharpie is white. I also wanted you to notice the orange eye (not all Coopers have orange eyes, but the one I saw this morning did). Finally, the legs on a Coopers are thicker than an Sharpie. Part of the reason I posted the first photo is because he's calling and that's what I saw this morning. According to the books the call of a Coopers is lower and slower than a Sharpie, which is higher-pitched and faster and more resembles chattering. The one I heard this morning was definitely slow.

Ok, on to other experiences.

During Christmas, Nikki and I had the chance to go birding just a little bit in Ritchie Woods on Hague Road in Fishers. It was quite cold and we walked a bit to a clearing and saw absolutely nothing. But as we were getting back in the car, Nikki spotted a woodpecker! I called it as a Downy, but now I'm not sure it wasn't a Hairy (more on that later). We watched it for a while and also some American Tree Sparrows when I heard a distinctive call across the parking lot. As I turned Nikki grabbed my arm because some Sandhill Cranes had flown over the tree line overhead. It was awfully cool! I can't remember EVER seeing Cranes before in my life and I've seen them migrating once in Chicago and once in Indy (not counting going to Jasper-Pulaski). Then Nikki went back to the car and I sussed out the Brown Creeper that had been making all the noise earlier. On our way to lunch we also saw a Northern Mockingbird that I made her turn the car around to identify. Then, in the parking lot of Don Pablos as we were going in I looked up in the sky and saw a hawk. She was still in the process of getting out so I yelled at her "Nikki get the binoculars! GET THE BINOCULARS!!" (You kind of had to be there) I looked at him first and he was white with black tips to his wings. Nikki also saw that he had a gray contrasting head along with some other field markers that I can't remember now (sorry Nikki, please feel free to share in comments!) I brought the field guide with me into the restaurant and we identified it as a male Northern Harrier. Strangely, on the car ride over I had been explaining to her that I have a mental top ten list of birds I really want to see and I had mentioned the Northern Harrier! So Yay!! Apparently she saw another one later that week as well.