Neighborhood hawks and owls

For the second day in a row, I've seen two small hawks in the woodsy neighborhood behind us.

The houses are nestled into a forest of generally large oaks and hickories, punctuated by patches of lawn, and bisected by a dry creek streambed where water flow seems to have been diverted to the storm water easement.

At the same spot, again this morning, the two hawks were swooping around from branch to branch, perhaps disturbed by my passing by. They were smallish hawks, about the size of a crow, and I'm thinking that they were Cooper's hawks, since sharp-shinned hawks are more the size of a jay. Both like to take feeder birds, so would have a good territory in the neighborhood. These two birds were the same size, so probably both male, maybe juvenile ? -- they certainly looked like this photo taken by David Faintinch.

Later in the morning, from the back garden, a friend and I heard a barred owl calling from the same general area. We've had barred owls visit our yard before, and perch at dusk waiting for something tasty to appear. Nice to hear an early morning call!

A barred owl

On this morning's walk, I saw what I first thought was a hawk glide across the road. It landed on a branch of a nearby tree, and remained still, watching me closely. I realized it was an owl, probably a barred owl. We live in a neighborhood full of old hardwood trees, punctuated by a long watershed/sewer easement, so have good habitat for barred owls, which like forested areas.

A couple of summers ago, we had a nest nearby, and every evening for several weeks, one or two of the young owls would perch on a branch of the black walnut on the edge of the forest, hunting for dinner.

One day, early, I caught a glimpse of one near the house, and managed to catch a blurry image, before it left.