The Hawk

I don 't purposely try shock people, well, ok, I do if they're being idiots, but not usually.  Sometimes it's just the circumstance.  Like the time I was in a membership class at a local church.  We're all nicely dressed, sitting in our folding chairs, arranged in a great big circle.  Don't remember what the class was about, only the moment when we were each asked what animal we'd choose to be.  What the heck that has to do with religion or that particular church is beyond me.  Anyway, I didn't have any trouble deciding what I'd be, which was handy since I was one of the first to answer the question.  "A hawk," says I.  A bit of a murmur ...  and, was that a snicker??  Apparently that was not the "right" answer as most everybody else wanted to be a dog or a cat or a kitten or a rabbit. Alrighty then, this clearly was not a group I belonged in!

This morning I was reminded of that incident when I went to the back door to let Jack out and saw what appeared to be a juvenile hawk or maybe falcon busily ripping something apart beneath the mesquite tree.  I made Jack wait and I darted from window to window to door trying to get a better look - all I could see was its back.  My first thought was kestrel........

Britannica.com

the legs seemed right, the breast seemed right, the head was almost right, but the back and tail were wrong. Focusing on the wide horizontal stripes on the tail I thought maybe zone-tailed hawk - a juvenile maybe. But the head and breast were wrong and besides they're supposed to be somewhere else this time of year.

Britannica.com

Back to the National Geographic Field Guide.  Definitely not an eagle, too small.  Not a kite, wrong neighborhood. Northern harrier looked good for about a minute.  How about the Coopers Hawk...

photo: Stanislausbirds.org

Getting better, but the one we saw had more white spots on its back.  The color doesn't seem quite right but this photo was taken elsewhere so maybe there's a bit of a color variation.  But no white feathers at the base of the tail.  Sharp-shinned hawk maybe?

photo: Jeff  Anderson

Stripes, good. White feathers at the base of the tail, good. But no white spots on the back. And the color is off. Maybe this is an adult and we were looking at a juvenile. Let's check the Golden Guide to Field Identification of North America...

photo: Dennis Paulson

Bingo! This seems to be it. "Preys chiefly on small birds." Aha. (I'd thought it was an owl leaving those neat piles of feathers in the backyard. No blood. No guts. Just feathers.) "Migrates singly or in loose groups." Sounds right, never seen another one around here. 10-14", yup I think we've got it.

Ok, technically its an accipiter, not a buteo. I love the buteos.  I just love to watch them, and around here they are the easy to spot, if not for me to identify.  Next time I'll try to get a good look at the beak, look for an eyebrow, and check the eye color, get a picture..............