How Lucky Was I?

My Sweetie and I are having a good time counting the birds in our backyard for the Great Backyard Bird Count. We have always enjoyed watching them but had never stop to count them. Now we have.

As of noon on Sunday, we had three dozen house sparrows, two dozen goldfinches, two purple finches, a house finch, a half dozen juncos, a red-bellied sapsucker, a downy woodpecker, two cardinals (one male and one female), a white-breasted nuthatch, six mourning doves, and a sole robin.

We are only missing a few of the usual suspects: bluejay, hairy woodpecker, northern flicker, tufted titmouse, black-capped chickadee, red-winged blackbird, and chipping sparrow.

I was bemoaning the fact that we have had a Cooper’s hawk and a sharp-shinned hawk in the yard at various times this winter. But it didn’t appear that we would be able to add them to our lists.

Then about 1:00 on Sunday I spotted this guy sitting in front of our Christmas tree which we always put out for the birds to take cover in.
Cooper's Hawk

Oh, my! I guess we unwittingly provided a diner for the hawk. Can you see the hawk's face when the sparrow escaped? It almost looks like a cat in the branches.

There goes lunch!

This is obviously a young hawk or he has completely forgotten the bird-of-prey technique for acquiring food. There he was walking into the tree in hopes of having a house sparrow for lunch.

Now I can add Cooper's hawk to the list. Maybe the sharp-shinned will turn up tomorrow.


Click here for more information: Great Backyard Bird Count