Cooper's Hawk Profile

One of my favorite images of the juvenile Cooper's Hawk who has been hanging out in our yard. I love the soft diffusion of light that the white pine boughs create in the background.


I'm away on my northwoods camping trip. Unplugged, off grid, just enjoying nature  :-)  Thank you for visiting my blog - I'll reply to comments when I return in a few weeks!

Flamenco: Cooper's Style

Every year we have Cooper's Hawks nest in our east pine trees. And every year they mercilessly pick off our birds at the bird feeders.

A juvenile has been hanging out in the yard  for nearly a month and the other day I took the opportunity to spend time photographing it.

What did I learn from this? Apparently Cooper Hawks know how to do the Flamenco. Or at least this one does.

A little stretching first:

Limber up that neck:

Warm up those legs:

Flamenco Right!

and Flamenco Left!

Crouch down

and full leg extension!

 And a final, humble bow:

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Head over to Stewart's page for Wild Bird Wednesday to enjoy other fun and beautiful bird posts. (and feel free to kick up your heels on the way over...)

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Nature's alarm system (Blue Jays and chickadees) alerted me to something in the yard a few minutes ago. Looked out the window and sure enough, sitting right on top of one of the feeder stations was this gorgeous immature Sharp-shinned Hawk: