We have numerous flowering plants and a half dozen or so trees in our long thin backyard, so that it’s green and leafy for most of the year. As such, we get a lot of birds stopping by. Once, just as I flung a rawhide chew toy off the back deck while our Ernie boy dashed wide-eyed and pell mell down the steps to get it, a hawk came swooping low between the houses, hunting.
Have you ever seen something you wished you had film of? Man, I’d go out and buy a home movie camera right now if I could get that on film. The problem is, of course, you don’t have the camera ready when the moment occurs.
It was a woodland hawk, probably a sharp-shinned, and I’d seen them come blitzing low between the houses before, stealth attacking from the front through to our backyard, hoping to surprise thier feathered dinner before dinner might, in a thumping burst of adrenaline, escape into the brush.
Just as I threw the chew toy the hawk came swooping through, faster and on course for the tossed toy, then veering off and through the yard lickety-split while I got as wide-eyed as our Ernie had been in his pursuit.
I haven’t seen many hawks of late – but with my schedule now I’m rarely here in the course of the day, and often preoccupied on weekends.
We’ve seen lots of hummingbirds, the usual assortment of scrub jays, robins, towhees, sparrows (golden-crowned in wintertime), and bushtits. We’ve seen a Bullock’s oriole, too, and late this summer watched as a black phoebe fledged her chicks in our backyard. (They perched on the fences, posts, and poles, then learned to swoop down on bugs quickly, flitting back to their perches.)
And every so often, out of the corner of my eye, I’ve caught a flash of yellow, which always managed to escape into the bushes before I could get a good look.
Until early one afternoon this week, when I took some time off and was home procrastinating rather than taking care of some tasks around the house. I’d noticed earlier that the sparrows and robins were battling over bathing rights at the birdbath, taking quick splash baths, stealing a few sips then flying off as others assaulted the rim, back and forth, squabbling as they took turns. The baths were dirty and littered with leaves, so I cleaned a couple out then putzed around for aw hile.
Then early in the afternoon I saw the flash of yellow. This time I had a chance to grab the binoculars and come back, and there I saw it clear as day: the yellow face and jaunty little black cap, head up and alert as it splashed quickly in the bath. I watched for a few brief seconds before it darted off, then I stepped outside and to the end of the deck to see if I might spot it again and see more of the color and patterns on its body. It was gone, but as I looked around another motion caught my eye: in our pear tree there was a cedar waxwing.
I’ve seen waxwings before, but never in our yard. He sat in the tree for a bit, with the erect dignity of his elegant species, then took off. When I checked the field guide in the house my little yellow-faced bereted friend turned out to be a Wilson’s warbler. Not uncommon, but nothing I’d identified before. Weeks and months go by without ever seeing anything like this, and here within moments of each other was a bird I’d never seen in our yard before as well as a bird I’d never identified at all!
Okay, the eccentricity of birding, I know. Be still my beating heart. Yet it was nice to see a few new feathered friends out back, and I hope they’ll feel welcome to come back again – when the sharp-shinned hawk is away.
Wow, if all of that happened in my yard, I’d be all like, “What’s with all the birds???” We mostly have squirrels in our yard. They piss me off with their cute tails, digging up my plants. Once they killed a little avocado tree I had just planted. Stupid squirrels.
I do enjoy birds, though not bird feeders (rats), and I’m fine with blue jays as long as they terrorize someone else with their screaming. We had an opossum around here once. Much excitement. Often raccoons. Sometimes deer, which worries me, because we do NOT live in a safe area for deer. Too much traffic.
Anyway, I clearly wouldn’t know one bird from another, except for the lovely hummingbirds we get, and the occasional screaming blue jay. I’m impressed with your knowledge.
Oh, and we live in a little condo complex with a pool right across the path from our unit. There once was a hawk of some kind just sitting there looking dangerous on the pool fence. I didn’t know what kind of hawk it was, but it was cool nonetheless.
Squirrel Wars!
J, we have squirrels who dig up our yard (one winter it was practically a checkerboard) and chew on our deck. They even chew up the wiring to our lights — and this isnt’ the most infuriating of it. They torment our poor Edie girl practically to distraction, parking their tantalizing little butts in branches and chattering down at her, flicking their tails provocatively until she is almost beside herself she wants their furry little squirrel asses so bad. I used to trap them and bring them to the city animal shelter — no kidding.
I’ll bet you had a young red-tailed hawk on your pool fence. They’re very widespread, and a young one still learning its way around might easily have visited, still learning how to hunt.
That Wilson’s Warbler is beautiful, nice spotting Ben!
I’ll have to get out and take some more shots of the Aussie birds near me. Some of the parrots are gorgeous (if loud!)
Trucie, I’d love to see what birds you get locally. I’m already jealous of your budgies.
Here in SF we have feral parrots.
Have you heard of the movie The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill?