Change Is Hard

…but change is certain.

A visitor. Or is it two visitors?

29 Comments

This week I was washing dishes and caught this Coopers Hawk sitting on my deck railing.

I quietly slid away and walked silently to the living room to grab my camera. Amazingly enough Penny moved silently next to me.

I didn’t really expect the bird to still be there when I returned. They generally don’t wait for me.

But he (or she) was still there, seemingly unfazed. I watch it for a long time, even moving to a better window. It picked up one foot and tucked it into it’s chest feathers.

And then suddenly it flew. I expected that to be it.

But it only flew about 3 feet, to the corner of the deck where it could inspect the ground under some shrubs.

We used to have quite a few chipmunks. I haven’t seen one in awhile.

Then it flew away, and I figured that was it. But it showed up again about 10 minutes later, back on the deck railing, watching the back yard, inspecting the ground and the sky.

Turns out he or she was being harassed by bees.

When it left, being pursued by the bees, I was SURE I wouldn’t see it again.

Until about 30 minutes later when I walked through the master bedroom and guess who was on the bedroom deck railing? I didn’t have my camera with me, so these were taken with my phone.

Yep, our favorite (or perhaps least liked, depending on whether you’re a chipmunk) bird.

But…is this the same bird? Or a different one? Perhaps they’re a couple? Or parent and child?

Your call.

Author: dawnkinster

I'm a long time banker having worked in banks since the age of 17. I took a break when I turned 50 and went back to school. I graduated right when the economy took a turn for the worst and after a year of library work found myself unemployed. I was lucky that my previous bank employer wanted me back. So here I am again, a long time banker. Change is hard.

29 thoughts on “A visitor. Or is it two visitors?

  1. What fantastic photographs, Dawn! Second from the last is my favorite. Looks like “skulking” to me.

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  2. Dawn, great pix! Birdwatchers would slog through miles of brush and swamp to get these…

    My fav is the one with the bee, so hard to time that one like you did. The expression on the hawk is so comical…”#%$& I’m getting really friggin PO’d… BETTER knock this $&@# off…” 😂

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    • I am lucky in my backyard, lots of action going on there almost every day. Not that I get it all with the camera. For the bee shot I was shooting continuously…and something turned out! 🙂

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  3. Exciting visit! A very handsome bird, and I love its pantaloons! 😉 I wonder if it disturbed a hornet’s nest? If it was a juvenile, its hunger and curiosity might have got it in trouble. 😀

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    • We have these wasp/bees/hornets every year at this time, they swarm the hummer feeder and the oriole jelly. The orioles have gotten smart enough to come early in the morning while it’s cool and the bees aren’t up yet. The hummer takes jabs at the bees and eventually leaves. 😦

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  4. Wow, wow, wow!! How lucky for you! Amazing shots, Dawn.

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  5. Wowza, Dawn! These are such fabulous photos, but the hawk and the bee!!!! I don’t like to think of what this guy/gal was looking for but, gosh, they are gorgeous birds.

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    • I know. He or she was here for two more days after the day I shot these. Kept coming back. Never saw him or her actually get anything, but he/she must have been successful once because he was around here all day for 2 days. The third day he was sitting on the ground under a feeder while I was walking up the yard after sleeping in the tent overnight. He let me get quite close. I don’t think I bother him or her at all.

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  6. Those are all amazing pictures of the Cooper’s Hawk Dawn – my favorite was the bee and the look on the hawk’s face. You are right about your chipmunks MIA. Unbeknownst to me, at the beginning of the pandemic, when my neighbor was home all the time and looking out his living room window while he watched TV, he saw a Cooper’s Hawk in the tree across the street. One by one the hawk got all the squirrels I used to feed every morning … he SHOULD have told me and I would have quit feeding them and making them “sitting ducks” but he is a hunter so he said he liked watching the hawk catch the squirrels when I asked if he’d seen my squirrels around. I immediately stopped putting out peanuts, but I had written about the five squirrels, a pair of Jays and a pair of Cardinals that I fed every morning on my front porch after I Googled and learned Cooper’s Hawks dine on birds. I have one hawk that hangs out on my chain-link fence as I have a large Golden Vicary that Sparrows like to take refuge in.

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    • That’s sad. I stopped filling the feeder on day 3 of him/her hanging around. I didn’t want my birds to be sitting ducks either. I haven’t seen him in several days now so I put food back out. We’ll see. I don’t think I like your neighbor. 🙂

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      • Yes it was sad to lose those squirrels. I wrote about them sometimes in my blog, especially Grady, an Eastern Gray squirrel. I’d put out peanuts for all of them before I would get ready to leave on my walk, then by the time I left all the peanuts would be gone. I didn’t like that my neighbor knew either and told him off about it. He said he watches hawks get squirrels in his backyard. I hope your hawk is gone for good. About 10-15 years ago we had some Peregrine Falcons in the neighborhood and they were attacking the songbirds.

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  7. Stunningly beautiful. Just … well … just stunning.

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    • Thank you! He or she is a very pretty bird. I tried to go online and figure out the difference between a male and female but other than size there’s not a lot of difference. And since I only see one at a time it’s hard to gauge size. It’s possible I had a pair here, one seems bigger, but might just be puffed up in some of the images.

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  8. I see these hawks everyday, but never that close up. How thrilling! He/they are gorgeous. I feel like I make the same face when a bee is annoying me.

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  9. What fun! So glad he stuck around for you!

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  10. What a cool collection of photos! I imagine your yard being a good hunting ground for what a hawk would be hunting for.

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  11. Lovely photos. Pretty bird.

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  12. Hard to tell! A beautiful bird, unless, of course, you are something it likes to eat.

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  13. Awesome photos, Dawn — the detail is amazing! I’ve seen these big boys (or girls) from a distance, but seeing them close up really points out what majestic creatures they are.

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  14. Wonderful captures, Dawn.

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