Mob!

[scarlettina]

I'm sitting inside with the balcony door open. Suddenly, a raucous noise just explodes outside: crows cawing like crazy. I run out onto the balcony and see the shadows of a whole flock on the other side of the building. I grab my camera and run downstairs and out the front door. There's a murder of crows mobbing the top of a tall fir tree in front of the neighbor's yard. I stepped out into the street and then across it, trying to see what's there. Crows don't mob like that unless there's something there to mob. One of my neighbors across the street invites me up onto his garage-top deck so I can get a better look. I see some sort of predatory bird up there, but can't tell for certain what it is. A hawk of some sort circles way above, its silhouette too dark to tell details.

Then suddenly the crows scatter like fireworks and out of the tree bursts this big, beautiful red-tailed hawk. The following shots are cropped down from what I took at the extreme end of my zoom. They're not bad.






Kinda cool.

Comments

[pennysquisher.livejournal.com]

A couple of summers ago there was a pair of bald eagles hanging out at the beach near my dad's house. He saw them in the morning when he was walking and saw crows bugging them a couple of times. Then one morning he saw one of the eagles eating a crow. After that we didn't feel as sorry for the eagles anymore.

[greyjoy.livejournal.com]

That second pic is just terrific, what a great action shot! I think that's a Cooper's Hawk.

[connerybeagle.livejournal.com]

A Cooper's is a wee bit smaller than one of those crows. (Different tail/body proportions and coloring, too, but it hardly matters, given the size factor...)

Stupendous photos! Wow!

(This was not Connery!)

[singingnettle.livejournal.com]

Great catch!

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

One of my neighbors thought that he saw the hawk eating something. I couldn't tell for sure myself; the bird was too high to see much of what it was doing. I will say that I saw it duck its head several times as though it was picking at something. I just can't say for sure., though.

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

I dunno. I checked two of my references, one of which has some pretty clear images of the red-tail's patterns from beneath, and it really looks like a red-tail to me. Of course, I still have so much to learn in this area that I could certainly be wrong. Tomorrow morning, when I'm more awake (see time stamp) I'll do a little looking and check out the Cooper's.

(PS--And yes, I owe you e-mail....)

[greyjoy.livejournal.com]

I just checked my "Seattle Birds - An Introduction to Familiar Species" and it concurs with your conclusion: red-tailed hawk. I didn't realize the Cooper's hawk was so much smaller than the red-tail.

[quarkwiz.livejournal.com]

Wow!! The only hawk pics I've ever managed to get are of them sitting in trees or on our radio tower. We once heard a terrible racket of bluejays in the backyard, and sure enough, they were harassing a redtail.

[jackwilliambell.livejournal.com]

Very cool! Nice wildlife in the city moment too.

[herself_nyc]

Wow!