Seagull. It's what's for dinner.
A raptor came into our back yard yesterday, hauling a headless seagull. He's not as big as a bald eagle, and he has orange-ish short pants on his legs. His body is mainly brown. My camera didn't handle the distance very well ~ he's probably 30' away and my zoom didn't go that far. After a short google, I found this, a Sharp-Shinned Hawk. This could be a juvenile.
He heard us turn on the water in the house (I had to have tea!) and moved his feast to a bramble of blackberries and next time I looked he was gone, and so was that seagull. All that's left is a bunch of white tufts of feathers under the tree.
5 comments:
TMK has a regular sharp-shinned hawk visitor in her yard. It has been visiting since it was a juvenile and sort of plopped, quite by mistake, we are sure, into her yard. However, since then, she's seen it a few times a year, including this weekend when it shot out of a lilac shrub in one direction and a perfectly, healthy live squirrel shot out in the other. Hmmmmm. Wonder what was going on THERE? A little stalking, perhaps?
I had a Sharp Shinned Hawk buzz right by me at eye level in a park in hot pursuit of a sparrow. I've seen one in my yard a few times but never with quite so nasty a meal.
I am enjoying the idea of a Sharp Shinned Hawk in Short-pants, great description! I saw a Kestrel take a pigeon down on the roof of the building across from my office window (15 or so feet away). Watching it was like watching a cross between the Discovery Channel and a car wreck, cool but brutal.
We have a sharp-shinned hawk (or cooper's hawk - I can't tell those two apart) that likes to visit our bird feeder in the back yard. Usually he just manages to chase away the regular traffic but occasionally he scores and treats us to the dubious pleasure of watching him enjoy his meal.
My dh likes to refer to it as an equal opportunity bird feeder.
Ymmmm.... Thanks for sharing.
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