FOAM LAKE BIRDING
No. 161
With the recent snowfall it seems that winter is finally
here. However, the snowfall was
relatively light and with warmer temperatures on the horizon the snow might
just disappear. Having winter delayed is
alright with me.
During the several days of intermittent snow squalls our
feeders were very busy. Some of our
"old friends" like the Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers preferred the
peanut feeders. Others like the Pine
Siskins (which should have gone south by now) and chickadees fed on the black
oil seeds. Still others like the Pine Grosbeaks and
Bohemian Waxwings just dropped in but never fed on anything.
This week we had another infrequent visitor, the Sharp
Shinned Hawk. The "sharpie"
was very interested in the birds at our feeders and probably would have had
lunch if the birds were a little more cooperative. When the hawk appeared the other birds
disappeared. However, if nothing else, hawks
are patient and persistent.
On the sharpie's
third visit in three days it was perched quietly in an apple tree about five
feet from the peanut feeder. Meanwhile,
my wife and I were observing a Hairy Woodpecker on a power pole just across the
back alley from us. Suddenly, the
woodpecker decided to come to the peanut feeder filling us with anticipation of
an attack by the sharpie. As the
woodpecker was about to land at the feeder it noticed the hawk. The hawk barely moved but the woodpecker
aborted the landing and flew back to the power pole in an awful hurry. Why the sharpie did not attack is
puzzling. Anyway, the Hairy Woodpecker
did return later to eat some of the peanuts at the very same feeder.
After the woodpecker incident the hawk still maintained
its vigil from the same perch until a small flock of Pine Siskins flew in for
some black oil seeds. Several siskins
landed at the feeder and one landed in the apple tree not far from the
sharpie. Suddenly the hawk attacked
scattering siskins all over the place.
We were not able to determine which siskin was singled out but after a
brief chase of only a few seconds the hawk landed without any bird in its claws. The sharpie was a juvenile and from what my
wife and I observed it was not a very proficient hunter and would require quite
a bit more practice to hone its hunting skills.
In either a colour or black and white photo a juvenile
and adult are easily separated and identified.
In colour the adult is slate grey with an orange barred breast and belly;
the juvenile is brown with brown stripes on a white breast and belly. In both the lower belly is white. In black and white photos the adult breast and
belly is barred while the juvenile is striped.
(Stripes run up and down; bars run crosswise). In real life the sharpie can easily be
confused with its close relative the Coopers Hawk. Although there is a size difference the two
hawks are almost identical in appearance and often cannot be safely identified
in the field. All differences are subtle
to say the least. One of the better
field marks is the shape of the tail. The
tip of a Coopers Hawk's tail is clearly rounded; the sharpie's tail is square
or slightly notched. In the photo of the
juvenile the tail is shown to be slightly notched thus confirming that it is
indeed a Sharp Shinned Hawk. The photo
of the adult shows the breast bars.
Although the weather was gloomy and overcast I still
managed to get some good shots of the juvenile sharpie. Note the tail shape and compare to that in a
good bird book. The photo of the adult
perched on the martin birdhouse was taken two summers ago.
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