Passerines and Predators

It has been ages since I blogged. On election night, Kelly kind of dared me to be profound, but as my wise cousin observed, she was plenty profound. To quote Tommy Sexton in an old Codco sketch, "I got nudding."

Well, that's not quite true: I do have a nasty cold and spent yesterday and today in bed. Some of the time I watched soap operas (I miss the election!!) and some of the time, like this morning, I watched the birds go crazy in the back yard. There were a couple of purple finches, a unholy number of house sparrows, a fat red cardinal, and a veritable swarm of flitting, chittering chickadees. It never fails to amaze me how speedy they are. You just get your camera set and they're gone. This is not a great picture, but I just love seeing these little fellows enjoying our garden.


I had better luck with the Hairy Woodpecker that started pecking around the neighbours' shed. I decided that this was a Hairy rather than a Downy because it doesn't have a "conspicuous tuft" above its beak, and in another photo, you could see that it has a longish bill.

Note to self: when the garage finally collapses and needs replacing, consider a cedar shed; it looks nice and the birdies seem to enjoy it.

I stayed tucked into the corner of the bedroom, watching the chickadees and woodpecker (at first I just wrote "pecker" there but luckily read it over before posting), hoping that the cardinal would come back, and channeling "stay asleep on the couch" thoughts to the cats. The last thing I wanted was a big orange cat thumping onto the back window ledge and frightening everything away.

I needn't have worried. Something big and brown and white landed in the neighbours' tree and frightened everything away. A hawk!


I was pretty sure it wasn't a red tail because it had a well-streaked rather than belted belly. I wondered about a Cooper's hawk. I checked with a friend who knows much more than I do, and she suggested juvenile Cooper's or Sharp-shinned. I am going with Cooper's since the belly stripes are finer than what Sibley shows for a Sharpie. Either way, it's a life bird!

I went out into the yard to try and get a better shot. It stayed for a moment, then turned, flapped its wings and took off for the west. The chickadees and squirrels kept their alarms going for quite some time after it left.

Not your usual city sounds. What luck to be home sick!