A Cooper's Hawk in Flight

 

While we are still under a boil water order, the weather has finally warmed up and we decided to head to Lamar for an afternoon of birding.  First, we drove down Fourth Street where we discovered that the cold front had knocked down the cattails which allowed us to see birds that had been previously hidden from view.

Three black crowned night herons were roosting in the downed cattails. There were also several snowy egrets,

and as we watched several flocks of black bellied whistling ducks came in and landed.

From there we next dove up Eighth street and did spot sand hill cranes along with an eastern meadowlark.

There were lots of the usual birds, but we did spot two whoopers napping in the afternoon sun. We never did spot the vermillion flycatcher, or any of the crested caracara’s but we did spot a hawk perched in a tree. The hawk was too far away to identify, so we continued our drive and then turned down twelfth street.

Before we reached Big Tree, we spotted five deer in a field of tall weeds. Just the ears and noses were visible, so we took some images before parking and walking around Big Tree, (it is the oldest tree in Texas, a live oak about one thousand years old), As we walked, we spotted an immature yellow warbler.

Continuing along twelfth street we pulled over for a view of the pond but there really was not a lot going on. Glancing to the side I saw a hawk flying past and managed to find it in the viewfinder, I was using the 150-600 mm telephoto lens, and I snapped four images before I lost the bird in the viewfinder.

Arriving back home we attempted to identify the hawk and while we thought it was a Cooper’s hawk it also had some characteristics of a northern harrier, or a sharp shinned hawk. We joined a bird identification group, duh why had not we done that before, and posting several pictures of the hawk got a positive identification as an immature Cooper’s hawk, (the picture with the wings down is my favorite as one can see the birds head in focus).

The key characteristics were the tear dropped shapes on its breast and the large extended head. We also learned that hawks typically exhibit dimorphism with the females being larger than the males, (I had tried to get into a bird class in college, but the class was so popular that I had to settle for a class on voles, moles, and shrews).

On the way back home we crossed Copano Bay and spotted several rosette spoonbills. Their breeding plumage is really bright now as you can see on the image of the male. Anyway, the images are some of the best I have taken, and we both cannot wait till we travel to High Island and Grand Isle in April. By then we will have both of our shots and are going to feel comfortable traveling again. Clear skies