New Birds in the Neighborhood

At least for now

A few days ago I posted an article about a hawk sighting that I had (Encounter With a Hawk). It was about a hawk that I saw sitting on the power lines outside my office window. Being a bird freak, any out-of-the-ordinary bird sighting is a huge thrill for me. I thought it was an out-of-the-ordinary bird sighting but it has turned out to be something very different.

At first, I thought that it was a goshawk but with subsequent research I have determined that it was either a Cooper’s Hawk or a Sharp-shinned Hawk (two hawk species that are very difficult to differentiate). Both of these species live in my area at this time of year and they both make themselves at home in urban areas or quasi urban areas as is the case for where I live.

I thought it was just a chance encounter but this hawk (and its mate) seem to have moved into the neighborhood. And they seem to live in the alleyway behind my apartment building.

The day after my initial hawk sighting I went for my usual mid-afternoon walk around the neighborhood. I was walking down the alleyway behind my apartment building when I heard an unusual bird call. I looked up at the power lines that followed the alleyway and I saw the same hawk that I saw the day before. (Of course I had no way of knowing if it was the same hawk but it looked exactly like the same hawk.)

It was letting out high-pitched shrieks and those shrieks were followed by similar high-pitched shrieks from behind me. I turned around and looked up at the power lines above the alleyway behind me. And up there was another hawk!

I quickly realized that the two hawks were singing to one another. The first hawk let out a high-pitched shriek then the other one let out a high-pitched shriek and then the first hawk shrieked followed by the second hawk. They shrieked back and forth in perfect syncopation. My head was going back and forth between the two birds and my neck was starting to get sore. (I was in Bird Freak Heaven.)

The first hawk was larger and more ornately colored than the second hawk. I inaccurately assumed that the larger hawk was the male. With humans it is the females who are the pretty ones but with birds it is usually the males who are the pretty and more colorful ones. (Cardinals are the best example of this.) So I assumed the bigger hawk was the male but I was wrong. I since learned that with both Cooper’s Hawks and Sharp-shinned Hawks the opposite is true. With them the females are larger and prettier. Who would have thunk it?

The way they were singing to each other I wondered if they were mates or perhaps parent and child. I really could not tell but I learned that with both of these species the young leave the nest at a very young age and there is not a very strong familial bond. (Personally, I don’t mate for life either. I’m not a fucking penguin. I’m more of a hawk.)

So there I was looking back and forth between these two hawks when suddenly, out of the blue, another hawk showed up and dove directly towards the larger of the two hawks on the power lines. The larger hawk on the power lines jumped up into the air spreading its wings and the two hawks very briefly seemed to come into combat with each other in the air except they never touched each other. It was just some kind of show of strength or something.

So the hawk that came out of the blue ended up flying away and the original hawk came back down to the power line. After a brief moment it was once again singing with the other hawk farther down the power line which never budged while the third hawk came at the first hawk.

My neck getting a little sore, I’m looking up at the power lines thinking, “Holy shit, most humans spend between 98 and 99 percent of their lives indoors and never see incredible stuff like this. I am so glad for my daily walks!”

So the two hawks kept singing back and forth, over and over and over, and I finally continued my walk as I rubbed my neck.

Here in my neck of the prairie it has been unseasonably cool and rainy for the last four days. I am rejoicing because I have not run my air conditioner at all in the last four days. (And it is in August!) While I am happy that my next electric bill might not be as horrific as imagined, I am happy for another reason. You see, my windows have been wide open for the last four days.

Thanks to my recent hawk encounters I know by heart the high-pitched shrieks of these hawks. With my windows open I’ve been hearing these shrieks all day long! When I hear them I look out the windows and sure enough I see one sitting on a power line or on top of a power pole or on a rooftop. It seems these hawks have moved into the neighborhood.

Not only do I hear them repeatedly from within my apartment but every time I leave for a walk or to run an errand they are there out in my immediate neighborhood. They definitely seem to have moved into the neighborhood.

But I have a feeling it is not a permanent thing. I have learned that both the Cooper’s Hawk and the Sharp-shinned Hawk are migratory birds. While they hang out in my neck of Turtle Island in the summer months, come September they head south to New Mexico, Texas and Mexico for the winter.

Perhaps they have shown up in my life to remind me that it is time for me to migrate, too.

Copyright by White Feather. All Rights Reserved. See My Latest Writings Here