Rocky Mountain Moments

By pipersmom

Cooper's or Sharp-shinned?

A pair of these hawks have nested in a nearby tree for the past several years.  The first year I went back and forth about the ID and, with the help of several blip birders, we called it a Cooper's Hawk.  Now that I have the Merlin App I thought I would enter the photo for an ID.  It came back Sharp-shinned.  So I entered the other 3 images I had to Merlin and they all came back Sharp-shinned.  Then I decided to try my Seek app and all 4 images were ID'd as Cooper's.  So there you have it, it's just too close to call.  Looking at the range maps, it's more likely a Cooper's and they are "uncommon" whereas Sharp-shinned are "rare" in this area. Anyway, whichever they are, they're back and this one was hunting in our backyard so it's time to take the feeder down.  They don't seem to hang around by the one in the front.  I know they need to eat but I'd rather it didn't happen in my yard!

I am very grateful to have gone back to the pool today for the first time in a year!  My friend, Karen, and I exercised in the "Lazy River" for an hour.  We tried going against the current like we used to but it was too hard!  We'll have to work up to it again. We can reserve time up to 3 times per week so we have our next 2 visits already scheduled. This will be fine until our water aerobics class starts up again. :-)))

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