The Cooper's Hawk and the Squirrel

 I've seen Cooper's hawks harassing squirrels before, but a few weeks ago there was quite a show in our front feeder area!  

This gorgeous bird was hungry!  I was busy doing breakfast dishes when she flew in.  I say, "she," but I'm only guessing because the bird seemed on the large size for Cooper's and as with most raptors, the females are a bit bigger than the males.  We have a feeder right outside the kitchen window (which is on the 2nd floor), so I can really watch what is going on while washing up!  Nice.   

(All of these pictures were taken through the window glass, and many, like this one, with my phone, so quality is iffy sometimes...)

What is she looking at?  She is watching a squirrel on the tree below her.   As you orient yourself with the next picture picture, the hawk is on the branch - her back to us - and the squirrel is on the left side of the tree, down near the ground, but above the bushes.

 

  

 We watched the interactions for the better part of 20 minutes (almost making us late to rehearsal!).  The two critters seemed to be teasing each other.  The squirrel would run around the other side of the tree, run up close, then back down.  The hawk watched and occasionally flew down, circling the tree!

In the next picture, the squirrel is pretty much right below the hawk on the right side, 

but still down near the ground!

 Hmm... Getting guttsy!

 In the next picture, the squirrel is close to the Coop, but one branch down on the left side of the tree... 

We left them here and did get to rehearsal on time! 

   

 

 

Another quick Cooper's Hawk Story (the Cooper's gets lunch): 

 It is well documented that the Coops will dive into a flock of birds around a feeder in hopes that one will turn toward the house and run into a window, thus providing a meal for the Coop.  

 

I was again doing dishes and there was a disruption below, around the feeder.  Suddenly a mourning dove crashed into the window, at my eye level about 3 feet from me!  It had barely bounced off the window when the Coop snatched it out of the air and dove into the bushes for a quiet lunch!  They are very agile birds and remarkable hunters!  That was a pretty amazing 10 seconds of my day!!

 

 A fox:

 Never a dull moment around here!  The pictures below were of another day, with a visit from our resident fox.  We had two that we'd see frequently, both red fox.  This fox but was more beige-ish gray, but still a red fox, and second was more red.  Sadly, we saw a dead red fox on the side of the road on Dutton a few days ago.  Probably "ours".

What a great place to live.  Is it any wonder that I don't complain about doing dishes??

 

 

 

 

FEEDER BIRD?????

Wait a minute!!!  A bobwhite is NOT a feeder bird!  What is he doing in there!  

"Bobby" found the feeder a few days ago - that was even more surprising than him fluttering his wings like a chick when I come out to feed the birds!  He seems to like the black oil sunflower seed side of the feeder.  So now I know that he likes white millet, black oil sunflower, peanuts and dried meal worms.  This is one spoiled bird!

What?  Who, me???

Hey, we need some more seed in here! It's all just husks!

This morning he was sitting next to a robin in the feeder, where the red-winged blackbird had just been!  Crazy world... For more about Bobby, see the next post, March 10.

An Interesting Yard Bird!!

 It all started on December 29, 2023.  I was walking the dog that morning and glanced over at one of the wooded areas and saw a bird that I did not recognize. Hmm...  kind looks like a quail, but I'm not up on my quails.  So, I took out my phone to see if I could get some pictures.  The bird was busy scratching the leaves looking for something to eat and not shy, so I managed to get in pretty close.  They were not very good pictures, so I decided to go home and get my camera.  The Bobwhite was still there when I came back and very willing to pose for a picture!

The Northern Bobwhite poses for his picture taking

Oh, but don't miss how beautiful my tail is!

I didn't see him again that day or the next, but on the Christmas Bird Count day, there he was in our yard among the sparrows and juncos, chowing down on the white millet seed that I scatter for the ground birds!  Nice!

Since that day, I have seen him more days than not.  Occasionally there are 2-4 days where I don't see him; he could either be off somewhere or I just missed him.  Ultimately, we named him "Bobby".  ;-)

Except for the white facial stripes, he is really well camouflaged!

Well, it is now 10 weeks later and he is still here!  Now that it is lighter when I take the dog out in the morning (whoops... that was before the time change), he is waiting for me under the bush and runs out to meet me!  "Where is my breakfast??  Where is my breakfast???"  A couple of days ago he was running circles around my feet and this morning, he followed the dog and me as we walked down the driveway!!  Tame much?  

I think, and others who know about these things also think, that he has escaped from a farm that raises the Northern Bobwhites, so he is familiar with people feeding him.  There are no natural bobwhite coveys left in Massachusetts, except for a small one on the Cape, but there are people who raise them, either for training hunting dogs, to stock hunting areas, or for food. 

Keeping that in mind, I talk to him as I feed him, but I do not try to touch him or feed him from the hand or let the dog sniff him.  If he is going to be wild, I want him to be a bit afraid of people and dogs!

He doesn't fly, but either runs or sometimes flutters.  I emailed Julie Zickefoose as she has had tame birds, and she confirmed that the bobwhites are so heavy and have such short wings that they don't fly much.

It remains to be seen as to what he decides to do as mating season draws closer.  The other birds are sure advertising their territory!  But there are most likely no mates near here for Bobby, so he may leave in search of a mate.

Well, it has been loads of fun having Bobby with us this winter, so whatever he does, we are grateful to have been able to look out the kitchen window and watch him as he eats or takes a dirt bath or runs at the bluejays to keep them away from "his" food!

Here is a video of him this morning as I was feeding him (white millet, peanuts and a few dried meal worms).  Listen for his soft little sounds (ignoring the bluejay and the chirps from the woodpecker).

 

 Be safe, Bobby!! 

UPDATE:  Bobby left us in the spring...  I was hoping, although knowing it was improbable, that he would return in the fall, but he didn't.  We are grateful that we had him for so many weeks!! ~Diane

TWO HAWKS, A FOX AND THE GREAT HORNED OWL

Two Hawks, a Fox and the Great Horned Owl…  This interesting wildlife report is a collaboration between us and our next door neighbors. We took what was seen by each household and put together the story of this vivid example of what our neighbor called,  "The 'Food Chain' law that rules the planet". 

About 9AM, here at our house, we were watching a Great Horned Owl who was about halfway down the hill toward the pond, maybe 50 feet away!  The owl was on the ground and seemed to be trying to grab some prey. 

Now, let’s go to the story next door. From their porch at about the same time, they noticed two hawks in some kind of altercation on their hill heading down toward the pond. Meanwhile there was a fox in their front yard, getting a drink of water. The fox heard the altercation, and as canines are wont to do, ran toward it! The fox tried to get the squirrel that the hawks were fighting over, but the hawks pecked at the fox and it ran off to look for an easier breakfast. 

Meanwhile, back at our house, we saw the owl suddenly fly off next door! We texted over there to let the neighbors know that there was a Great Horned Owl somewhere in their yard, on the hill heading down to the pond - we didn't see where it landed. 

"Ah, there it is!!" It was sitting on a log between our two houses, eating a squirrel! I guess the hawks decided that the owl was too big to mess with and left their prize. Tough getting a meal around here! 

OK - I hear you saying, "But owls are night-time critters!!  This was day time!"  Not all owls are nocturnal; the barred owl, for example (another owl we have around here) is also diurnal (up in the daytime) as well as nocturnal.  I think the Great Horned we saw (they are nocturnal) was probably feeding chicks and therefore hunting in the morning for herself.

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ONE OF THE WONDERFUL THINGS ABOUT LIVING HERE is that we never know what Mother Nature is going to show us! It isn't always pleasant, but it is always interesting! 

Other wonderful things about our little area is that it is DARK at night -- no street lights, so the wild animals do wander through the yard at night, and during the day. 

A fox passes through our yard almost every morning to see if s/he can get some breakfast. And that will stay true because the area around the pond, the brooks and the wetlands is all protected. What that means is that home owners can't even cut a tree or clean up brush within 100 feet of the water. Within 200 feet, you have to get permission from the Sudbury Conservation Committee to do changes.  The law truly protects the waterways and the wildlife habitat in Sudbury.

Here is a link to "Protecting Sudbury's Wetlands" 
https://sudbury.ma.us/conservation/2019/03/26/about-protecting-sudburys-wetlands/

Wild forever, I hope!!

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OH!  Back to the owl.  I never managed to get a good picture of her (I think it was female as it was quite large and in the GHOWs, as with many raptors, the female is larger than the male).  I was shooting pictures through the window and she was always behind branches.  I didn't want to go out of the house as my presence could scare her away from her meal.  Here are a couple of very fuzzy pictures, but you can kind of see the face.

The photo below is one that I took of a great horned owl several years ago (2015). This owl was also up in the morning and roosting (resting) in a tree down near the pond for well over an hour.  If you look very carefully at the talons on the owl's left foot, you will see a bit of fur left over from the meal!

NEVER A DULL MOMENT HERE!  And we LOVE it wild.

NATURE'S CLEANUP CREW

WARNING -- this post contains nature in the raw with some gruesome, but interesting pictures.  Stop with the bald eagle below if you are sensitive to witnessing animals eating other animals.

Bald eagle lunches on the deer carcass, January 9, 2022

 

THE BEGINNING:

Saturday morning, January 8, 2022, we were sitting on our porch (as we do almost every morning), watching the birds at the feeder and looking out to see what might be on the pond.  Linda spotted something red on the ice right in front of us, but behind some trees.  We moved a bit and looked more closely and it was a deer carcass that was partially eaten.  Amazing what goes on in the night or when we are sequestered in our houses!

Later that morning, we walked down the hill to the pond to see what the carcass was - we thought it was a deer, but we were not sure.  It was a deer, a doe.  

 

You can see above that part of the carcass is under water.  There was ice on the pond, but it wasn't solid and it appeared that the doe had gone onto the ice and broken through (out of the picture on the right) and then dragged herself out of the water to end up here.  We don't know if she went onto the ice on her own or if the predator (coyotes?) chased her onto the weak ice intentionally.  We also don't know if she drowned and the predator found the carcass or if they attacked when she came up. 

We had seen an injured doe hobbling down the path a few days before - her right rear leg was broken off about 6 inches above the hoof and dangling by sinews.  Poor thing - it didn't look like a fresh injury and she was getting around pretty well, but she was slow.

When we saw the carcass on the ice, we were hoping it was the injured doe. Later, when more parts were dragged out of the water, we accounted for four intact legs, so it was not her.

Deer carcass - a doe

You can't see it in the picture above because the carcass is shadowed, but the middle of the doe is gone.  We wondered if she was pregnant and the coyotes (again, we are assuming coyotes) zeroed in on the fetus.  There is an organ of some sort on the left side of the picture.

 

 

SUNDAY, January 9 

The carcass has been providing more food for what we are assuming are the coyotes.  Several critters seem to have broken through the thin ice on their way to or from the carcass.  Interestingly, we did not see ANY squirrels in our yard at all yesterday!  And very few birds.  They must have sensed the danger and gone elsewhere.

It is this day, Sunday, that the bald eagle stopped by for lunch.  After the eagle left, the crows ventured in and chowed down most of the day.  

 

 

MONDAY, January 10  

The carcass was dragged in closer to our landing, possibly because the ice was weak?  The head and ribs were separated from the rest of the carcass and dragged up onto the shore.  Amazingly, already there isn't much meat left!! Below shows what we found on Monday, still on the ice.  

The original kill site can be seen upper left side, under the right-most red leaves hanging down - the stick is pointing at the area and the ice is a different color. It is a small area and there is a lump of something left behind. 

You can see where the deer first broke through the ice if you follow the path from the lower right corner (near the carcass) toward the open water - there is a round spot just to the right of the kill site and that is where we think she first went in.

(two hooves upper left, spine lower right)

What is left of the main body of the carcass was dragged quite a distance!

The ribs and head were still attached and dragged up to the shore path.  This is one of the hardest pictures to look at because the head is still intact...   Canine footprints are visible all around it.  Coyotes woke us up in the middle of the night.

(Picture below - scroll fast if you get queasy easily!)

 

TUESDAY, JANUARY 11 

The head and ribs are gone - taken home to the den?  Snowed a dusting overnight and there are bird prints all around the carcass part still on the pond, as many crows lunched on what is left of the carcass. I followed the canine footprints along the path for a ways, but didn't see any sign of a den or even of dragging the ribs/head.  Must have happened before the snow.

We hear coyotes again - 8:30 PM.  

 

 

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 12 

Clear and quite cold - snow is gone from the pond and the carcass is still on the ice in pretty much the same place as yesterday.  We are wondering if it will stay there until the ice melts (not today!  COLD.  1.2˚ F!

Last night we not only heard the coyotes, but saw canine shaped shadowed figures at the carcass site (~11 PM).  They were behind the canoes, so the sighting was not clear.

 

Below was seen on the ground at the landing - a bit of pelt and chunks of fur.

 

 

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13 

What is left of the carcass is still on the ice, but the parts are more separated.

Again we see canine shapes behind the canoes at around 7PM - moon is high and almost full this week and helps us see some.  Coyotes howling at both 8:00PM-ish and again at 12 AM

 

 

 

FRIDAY, JANUARY 14

This morning things were moved around again.  There was one leg and hoof near the landing and a bit further on, the spine (which was pretty picked over!). 

SATURDAY, JANUARY 15

Things are pretty much as they were yesterday.  Slight change in positions, but otherwise as is.  We are wondering if it will stay like this?

Below is the place on the ice where the carcass was before the parts were dragged up onto the shore.

No coyotes howling last night.

We are surprised that the leg is still here!  We expected it to be dragged home!  In spite of the bone looking pretty clean in places, there is still good meat on this leg under that fur!

 

SUNDAY, JANUARY 16

The spine is gone, but the leg is still there.  (Chilly today! -2.5˚F)

MONDAY, JANUARY 17 

Snow in the morning followed by HEAVY rain, sleet, freezing rain most of the day.  We did not venture down the slope and no coyotes were howling.

 

TUESDAY, JANUARY 18

EVERYTHING IS GONE!!!!  Leg, spine, rib cage & head, torso, entrails.  The only thing left to show that there was ever anything going on here is a bit of fur.  One of the pelts is gone, too!  We looked on the ice and under the ice on shore (it was very warm and heavy rain water pouring down the hill yesterday) but not a trace.

Nature's clean up crew has taken care of things again, and in the process, many birds and animals are fed.

Amazing week...

FLEDGE DAY! ROBINS ON THEIR WAY

Fledge Day has arrived!  May 20, 2018

Today is the nestlings' 15th day in the nest (robins usually fledge between 12-14 days), but yesterday, day 14, was really cold, 37˚ in the morning and never got above 59 - with rain. Smart to stay put. In general, these nestlings have not seemed as restless as last year's brood. 

Mama Robin with all four nestlings - fledge is tomorrow!

Although, there was some jostling in the overcrowded nest on pre-fledge day!

The blurry one (it was wiggling and I was using a handheld iPhone over my head!) with the wavy gape was the first to go.

Fledgling #1 left the nest at 6:34 AM: Like last year's birds, it was yelling all the way! (“Mom. Dad, I’m flying!!”) 

It was a very sudden departure, none of the wing flapping that we saw last year. Fledgling #1 was sitting outside of the nest, while the other three were hunkered down with their beaks on the edge of the nest (“No way I'm going!“).

Wavy-beak outside of the nest, sitting very quietly just before he flew

 Last year's first to fledge had quite a bit of bravado about it and then when it flew, it glided to the ground.  This one seemed more confident and collected, and when it took off, it was flying, not gliding!  It went straight out under the porch roof and then up to a branch on the hemlock, but it didn’t land (perhaps thinking, “Yikes! I don’t know how land!“).  Instead of landing, it glide it down into the rhododendrons, with an adult following close behind.

No adults are feeding the remaining three birds and they currently show no sign or interest in leaving.  It has been 45 minutes since #1 left and we haven't seen the parents at the nest at all.

#2 starts to get ready to go:

#2 getting ready!

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6:23AM, #2 leaves the nest and fledges :

Mama came and fed the other two, not feeding the one on the right (below), who was about to leave the nest.  

Right after mama flew off the nest, #2 followed her.  

This one flew over Linda’s car and to a branch in a pine tree! Mama came and joined the fledgling on the branch, encouraging it to fly down to the ground. Both adult and fledgling hopped around the ground, with the adult leading the fledgling somewhere to safety. 

The other two nestlings, having been fed and their fecal sacks taken, hunkered back down into the nest.

 

As of 10AM, they remaining two were content to stay put although one was showing some interest in departure. 

 

 

 The other nestling is the lump of feathers in the nest (right)!  For a long time, I thought the one standing was the last bird in the nest!

It is now 11:45AM and there are still two birds in the nest.  More later...

OF NESTS, HERONS AND COWBIRDS

There is a lot of life around here this spring!  We are usually gone for these weeks and we and miss it, but this year we feel like we are right in the middle of everything!  

FOUR great-blue herons flew overhead this morning as I was walking the dog.
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Yesterday afternoon on our walk, I had just crossed the brook on Moore Road and there was this VERY CLOSE, and VERY LOUD, shrieking "GRAAACK", right over my shoulder!  I am not particularly jumpy, but I jumped at this!  My first thought was, "Fisher in the tree?"  But it was a great-blue heron chasing a red-tailed hawk!!!  I wonder if there are nests back in those wetlands and the hawk was after the heron nestlings!  Gotta check it out. 
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The house wrens are very busy moving more twigs into the nest box.  I was puzzled because it also seemed that there was a fledgling around, asking for food (smaller than the adults, some fuzzy down-like feathers, inside of mouth still a bit red).  I did some research and read that house wrens frequently have more than one clutch and sometimes while dad house wren is feeding the fledglings, mom runs off with another male!  Then dad finds another mate and they refurbish the nest.  I guess this could be the scenario... they haven't confided in me.

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 AND, on Sunday we spotted a grey catbird nest in the Rhododendron bush right under our window - perfect viewing place!  Very hidden - can you find the nest in the bush below??

(It is right smack in the middle of the bush, 

just below and left of the yellow leaf.)

Monday morning we spotted one, gorgeous blue egg!  

Tuesday morning, I checked as soon as it was light enough so that I could see into the nest and there were two eggs, but one was blueish-white with brown spots!  A brown-headed cowbird egg.  We have seen a lot of cowbird activity around here this fall.

I checked again around 6:30 and there was another blue egg - you can see that it is still damp from just being laid!  The nest is very deep and it is hard to see any eggs that are close to the edge - I believe the other blue one is just out of sight, perhaps behind that leaf.

Grey Cat-bird egg (left) and Brown-headed Cowbird egg

The catbirds are among the birds who can tell when there is an egg that isn't their own and by later in the morning, the cowbird egg was no longer visible.   Most likely mama catbird rolled it out of the nest.  We couldn't find it on the ground, but on the other hand, the way the ticks are this year, we were NOT interested in crawling around under the bush! 

This morning (Wednesday), by 7:30 there were three blue eggs and no sign of the cowbird egg.  

For those of you who don't know, brown-headed cowbirds always drop their eggs in other bird's nests (possibly up to 30 from one female in a season).  The cowbird usually hatches before the host bird's eggs and is often bigger than the host bird nestlings, so it claims more food.  Often the host bird's nestlings don't thrive. 

But this mama catbird is quite happy on her nest!

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Our robins are getting ready to fledge - should be this weekend!

 Otherwise, not much going on around here...