Sometimes the falcons  exert what seems from my vantage point like a lot of energy acquiring a meal, like chasing down a Sanderling, maneuvering one out over open water and cutting off its climb for height or an escape back to the  flock.  Recently I have been noticing, instead, some almost casual chases.  The falcon will gain considerable height and then soar headed into the wind, waiting for a tired landbird to approach the coast from off the sea.  The capture of these hapless migrants is usually accomplished with a minimum of effort, sometimes in only a couple of passes at the prey.  It’s not casual at all for the victim, I am sure, but the odds against evasion are high.  After the stoop for capture, it’s a ho-hum glide down to the beach or an easy row against the breeze to settle on a suitable perch right on the sand.  In the photos that follow, the falcon’s meal was a Song Sparrow, definitely in the wrong place at the wrong time!

The stoop:

The look:

The getaway:

Tidying up:

Headed for the next course:

Speeding Bullet birds are very cool!  Lan

I have a list of folks who get an emailed notice from me with a URL to click on when I have posted a new blog.  There are also times when I just send out photos to that list (which is totally non-commercial) without bothering to blog about them or post them to a listserve.  Not on the list?  Want to be? Just contact me  saying you want to be on the list .  Also, please subscribe to this blog using the Feedburner sign up field above – it’s really easy -  in the right side column for automatic blog feeds to your email.  Getting off the list is just as simple.

These images and Lanny McDowell Avian Art fine art prints are available for purchase. Contact me or View my gallery.

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Economy got you down?  Looking for ways to save your hard earned do-re-mi?  Thinking of cutting back or cutting off birdseed altogether?  Let them fend for themselves, right?

But wait! Try the new Sharpienator.  One sharpie used only once or twice a day will solve that bird food drain on your scarce resources.  And it is Absolutely Free! You can’t buy the Sharpienator in any store.  But wait.  There’s more!

So, you get the idea.  When the last snows started to melt the action at my feeders returned quickly to null and void.  I am used to having a coops cruise the place on a regular basis.  This year it’s a handsome and very stealthy adult male.  But very little birds manage to visit the feeders anyway.  Goldfinches and such.  Chickadees will scold a Cooper’s Hawk.  At sparrow size all this changes.  They are big enough and slow enough to not risk exposure to a stalking Cooper’s Hawk.

Today it became very clear why even the little guys were not around.  I mean, like, gone, absent from class.  The following sharpie photos were taken in an apple tree that is usually the last stop for birds before they approach my feeders.  He just sat there, alertly monitoring any action in the area.  The last shot of the series below, while not a good bird photograph, shows the hawk in sight of flying prey and just about to launch after it.  Note the complete streamlining of its body feathers from a pose of observation to one of ignition for pursuit.   Also the relative proportion of the head to the body has altered considerably.

Attention wandering:

Attention in the wrong place:

Resigned:

Disinterested:

Interested:

Very interested:

Birds are cool!  Lanny

These images and Avian Art fine art prints are available for purchase. Contact me or View my gallery.

I have a list of folks who get an emailed notice from me with a URL to click on when I have posted a new blog.  There are also times when I just send out photos to the list without bothering to blog about them or post them to a listserve.  Not on the list?  Want to be? Just contact me  saying you want to be on the list or, better yet,  subscribe to Feedburner above, in the right side column for automatic blog feeds to your email.  Getting off the list is just as simple.

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I received a call from someone who had found a barn owl in the snow, with just its head protruding.  It had died, most probably from starvation, and it was found a few feet from a small rural outbuilding which had been fitted with an entrance hole high up in the gable end.  I do not know if there was a nesting box inside, or only the visible entrance hole, clearly provided as an access for winged beasties.

The snow was melting away leaving more of the dead owl exposed.  The caller and I speculated on the raptor’s demise.  I spoke of the recurring threat of snow cover too deep for too long, the condition that denies the owl’s access to rodents and that defines how far north (so far) these birds can survive.  Or, in this case, how far north they cannot survive.

Sadness is balanced by appreciation of the incredible beauty of the remains. We usually see a flash of solid and ghostly white overhead when these beauties are encountered, slipping by in the dark or rasping their awful screeches.  Seen from above and at close range, the details of pattern, color and individual feather design are breathtaking.   Seeing a Barn Owl this close may not prompt you to go to church, but there is religion in the air, awe in your heart.

Here she is at arm’s length, still handsome, though the spirit has flown on:

Begin the Cosmic Plumage Tour:

The business end:

Birds are cool!  Lanny

These images and Avian Art fine art prints are available for purchase. Contact me or View my gallery.

I have a list of folks who get an emailed notice from me with a URL to click on when I have posted a new blog.  There are also times when I just send out photos to the list without bothering to blog about them or post them to a listserve.  Not on the list?  Want to be? Just contact me  saying you want to be on the list or, better yet,  subscribe to Feedburner above, in the right side column for automatic blog feeds to your email.  Getting off the list is just as simple.

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The young Cooper’s Hawks at the nest near Abel’s Hill in Chilmark on Martha’s Vineyard are up and out and lounging in adjacent trees.  The last time I was there, on July fifth, the female allowed herself to be seen, keeping a quiet eye on things, then audibly admonishing her brood, or maybe me, from deeper back in the oak forest.  I had never seen her before.  I have never seen the male; and so I have never been aware of more than one adult.  Of course, I could be mistaken, if the two adults are close in size.

In the dappled light of the woods it is pretty hard to make out any of these raptors when they are still, especially if you don’t have advanced knowledge of where to look.  But, boy, are they nice to watch when you do find them.

I do not really expect to find them near the nest,  should I go back.  There is too much to see and do … and to eat.

1st sighting of the adult female after she cruised out of the woods:

so easy to miss back in the woods

One thing you notice right away, looking at the young hawks, is that they are armed with adult weaponry:

A gray squirrel making his rounds tentatively approached one of the young Coops, not the best idea with one of the parents nearby.  When it got close enough, the youngster flared its wings and the encounter ended with the squirrel parting company.

so young and so serious

This Madonna, short of there being a Great Horned Owl in the neighborhood, which I doubt, will have fledged four new hawks into the growing company of Cooper’s Hawks established on Martha’s Vineyard.

These images and Avian Art fine art prints are available for purchase. Contact me or View my gallery.

Birds are cool!  Lanny

I have a list of folks who get an emailed notice from me with a URL to click on when I have posted a new blog.  There are also times when I just send out photos to the list without bothering to blog about them or post them to a listserve.  Not on the list?  Want to be? Just contact me  saying you want to be on the list or, better yet,  subscribe to Feedburner above, in the right side column for automatic blog feeds to your email.  Getting off the list is just as simple.

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