This year, October is kinder to birdwatchers than to leaf-peepers. The fall foliage is downright boring. Nonetheless, my husband and I decided to go to Raccoon Creek Park yesterday, yet wanted to wait until temperatures climbed a bit. I just happened to check my lenses when my better half called me, "There's a hawk at our birdbath." Hawks are not an unusual occurrence in our garden, but I'd never seen one in the birdbath before. I quickly attached a telephoto lens to my camera and stole into the garage. I leaned on the wall to steady my long lens as best I could and shot one photo after the other. It was a real beauty of a bird and just seeing it would have been enough. Catching it on camera - and adding it to my growing number of bird species - was awesome. I finally went to fetch my tripod, but when I returned the hawk was gone. How wise of me to shoot some photos first!
After checking our bird books, we concluded that I had photographed an immature Cooper's Hawk. How fortunate that our garage door stood open (hawks gets spooked easily) and that I had my camera handy. In the next few days, I will look out the window a lot to see if our backyard visitor returns.
Later in the day, we ventured out to Raccoon and were rewarded by seeing a Belted Kingfisher, three Pied-billed Grebes (at least that's what we think they were), four Mallards, and a Blue Heron. What an awesome day for birdwatching!
1 comment:
What a great catch. I had a chance to watch a young Cooper's hawk have breakfast in my front yard a couple months ago. It was dining on another small bird - probably a robin. They're really gorgeous hawks!
Post a Comment