Then there was our morning birding walk which was a rather wet affair. Not that our spirits were dampened, but we were - and so were the birds. Here are a few photos.
 |
| Wasps rebuilding after their previous nest had been destroyed |
Here is the previous nest as seen two weeks ago in the same spot:
The wasps were staying dry - unlike the birds.
 |
| Cedar waxwing |
 |
| Eastern phoebe |
And then another hard-to-identify hawk sighting - distant and through the light rain. I suspect a juvenile since I can't make its plumage work for any adult, but maybe I'm just very bad at hawk identification.
It's hardly my core competency - so I can live with that.
Your previous neighborhood hawk sightings all look like Broad-winged Hawks to me, and all adults as far as I can tell. One feature that some of the photos show is that when perched the tips of their folded wings extend more than halfway down the tail. (Cooper's wing tips wouldn't go so far down).
ReplyDeleteAs far as Friday's mystery hawk, I think the bird is a juvenile Cooper's Hawk.
Also, nice comparison shots of the wasp nests!
Thanks - I had been fairly confident, but looking back at Pearson and Sibley last night I began to doubt! I appreciate your expertise and gentle instruction as always! I was pleased to find the photo of the pre-disaster wasp nest. I thought I'd taken one but had to go looking for it.
Delete