Red-shouldered Hawk: Bird of the Week
I was sitting outside, watching some crows on the edge of our pond. One of them was flipping something up in the air and I just couldn’t tell what it was.
The pond on a hot August afternoon. You can just see the black dots of the crows to the right of the group of trees.
A young American Crow. I never could figure out what it was playing with.
Suddenly there was a large light brown bird right down by the crows, fluffing its feathers. The crows paid no attention, and that struck me as odd, because every afternoon, all afternoon, I hear them off in the treetops fussing at someone. Sometimes I go towards the trees to see if I can spot what they’re after, a hawk or an owl, but they all move off and I never get a good view. So I was especially glad to get a great view of this Red-shouldered Hawk.
Hawk with its back to the crow, well-camouflaged.
Crow takes notice as the hawk heads to the water. If you are wondering why the ground is all torn up near the hawk, that is damage from feral hogs!
There were three crows on the ground and about five more in the surrounding trees, but they did not mob the hawk. Finally they flew off, and the hawk had a nice dip in the pond.
Red-shouldered Hawk walking to the water.
A good pose.
“Ahhh, that feels nice and cool.”
Red-shouldered Hawks are year-round residents here. I love them because in the spring they are like alarm clocks — they start flying in circles and calling every morning around 10 o’clock — how can you not love a bird that sleeps in? And when I hear them it reminds me to get going on chores before it gets too hot outside. But though I see them often, they are hard to get pictures of as they circle overhead. So, even though these are not the sharpest photos possible, it was nice to get to watch the hawk for several minutes.
I am joining in with I.J. Khanewala’s Bird of the Week. It is lovely to check out all the challenge pingbacks and do some virtual birding all around the world each week!
That’s brilliant. I am glad the birds were amicable on a hot day. Feral pigs are a problem in parts of this catchment, mainly in the cane fields where they can hide easily.
I didn’t know y’all had problems with the pigs too! We live across the road from a very wide creek bottom — it is called Lake Creek because when we get a lot of rain, it spreads out as a very shallow lake. When it is too flooded down there, the hogs come up here for a while. Thankfully, they are not here that much of the time.
Luckily indeed. I wouldn’t want pigs either. One day I came home from work and my daughter said we had pigs as she heard them in the bush close to the house. That night I heard the grunting. It was Koalas 😂
I guess you get used to those but I would think it was amazing! 🙂
It still sends a thrill to know they were around. Since the devastating fires of 2019 I haven’t seen or heard any around here 😥
How interesting, especially the (lack of) interaction between the crows and the hawk. Did the hawk drink much?
No, not much. He seemed to just be enjoying standing in the water! But I did try to sneak closer — I was about 200 feet away and I was trying to edge about 20 feet closer — and he flew off. Maybe he would have tried to drink more. But he can always come back. 🙂
The crows around us are always interesting to watch. They are clever and very sociable. Owls get a good scolding.
I always feel sorry for the owl or hawk that is being constantly harassed by the crows, but I do like watching the crows station themselves to points ahead — it seems like they are predicting where the other bird will go next!