A Four Hawk Week

Top Photo: A hawk passes over. This past week I saw four hawk species pass overhead here at the museum. In case you would like to have a try at identifying the hawks yourself, I’ll wait several days before filling in the captions with the correct species names. The hawks pictured are not to scale.Read more

What You Might See

Top Photo: Mystery bird in red maple. If you identified the bird in the top photo, you did well. It’s a blue-headed vireo. It was formerly know as solitary vireo, a name which I prefer over blue-headed. It’s not a rare migrant here in the Piedmont, but I haven’t seen one at the museum in several years so I thought it noteworthy. Occasionally they’re seen in the area during December, January, or even February. Fatsia Japonica is in bloom onRead more

Birds

The red-shouldered hawk above was hunting from a perch just a dozen feet or so from the boardwalk leading to Explore the Wild. The red-shoulders here are quite used to people and are not bothered by human passers-by. The hawk is local and is present most days throughout the year. The same morning I also saw a pine siskin, three purple finches, red-breasted nuthatches, a Copper’s hawk (another local), there were seventeen hooded mergansers floating in the water below theRead more

No Time to Spare

Top Photo: A male slaty skimmer waits for flying insects to pass by. If you spend any time out in nature, you’ll no doubt see animals sitting around seemingly doing nothing. Perching, waiting, and sitting still is just part of life for many wild creatures. There’s usually a very good reason for the apparent idleness. While some dragonflies spend a good portion of their day hunting on the wing, slaty skimmers, like the one pictured above, do their hunting fromRead more

Hunting in Winter

Can you see the bird in the above photo? It’s a red-shouldered hawk. As mentioned in the previous post, Herps (reptiles and amphibians), there’s been lizard, snake, and frog activity lately. This red shoulder is hunting those creatures. It’s also keeping an eye out for any incautious bird, shrew or rodent. Looking high and low, left and right, the hawk keeps a sharp eye on it’s environment for the slightest movement, ready to pounce. After many minutes (at least anRead more

Herps

With the warmer than usual weather, flowers are blooming early, butterflies are fluttering, and reptiles and amphibs are making premature appearances. I saw the first of the season northern water snake on February 25 (early by a few weeks) and several brown snakes crossing the path at different locations.   With the increased herpetological activity, our resident red-shouldered hawks have been on the hunt. Red shoulders eat frogs and snakes. February 25 brought with it many basking yellow-bellied sliders. MoreRead more

QUIZ ANSWERS

Answers to QUIZ TIME. And here’s why. We only have a front view of this bird. The light source is filtering through from behind, not great light. The bird in the photo is a buteo, not an accipiter (Cooper’s hawk). There are three buteos in our area at this time of year, Broad-winged, Red-shouldered, and Red-tailed Hawks. They are all a different size, the broad-winged the smallest, red-tailed the largest. But there’s nothing to compare this bird to, to judge itsRead more
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QUIZ TIME

Can you identify the bird in the photo? You’ve probably already figured out that the bird is a hawk. Can you identify it as to species (5 points). Extra points for giving the age of the bird (5 points). Double points for naming the tree the bird is perched upon (10 points). If possible, indicate how you identified the bird. What distinguishing marks or characteristics do you see that makes this bird the species that you say it is and notRead more