Rocky Mountain Moments

By pipersmom

Unwelcome Visitor

I opened my curtains to look at the birdfeeders this morning and saw this Sharp-shinned Hawk (accipiter striatus) perched in the tree looking for a snack.  Sadly, I know the snack would be the small birds rather than the birdseed.  Fortunately,  my little ones must have gotten the word and were nowhere to be found.  He hung around for a few minutes and then flew to the ground and checked in the shrubs and luckily didn't find any there either.  We have had hawks in the back yard which backs up to an irrigation canal and has a lot more trees, but I hadn't seen one in the front which is more open.  I will worry about my birds now and am considering taking the feeders down but they're so used to being fed.  I'm not sure what to do.  :-/  I would have been happy to get this photo of him anywhere but in my yard!

As always with the new Blip, this looks better large.

Correction:  With a little help from my Blipmates and studying the other pics I got of this guy, I decided it is a Cooper's Hawk.  The two are so similar but the deciding factor for me was the longer rounded tail.  The Sharp-shinned's are shorter and more square.  I'm 99% sure....

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