A visitor at the feeders - Kate Crowley
By
Kate Crowley
Something wasn’t
right. It was Monday morning and Mike
had everything ready to begin his daily count for Feederwatch, but there were
absolutely no birds to be seen. Even the
squirrels were absent. The feeders had
seeds in them, the skies were clear and it was -5F. There had always been a frenzy of activity on
previous mornings with subzero temperatures, so this was a mystery, until the
explanation flew into the spruce tree.
I was standing at the
sink looking out the window when I saw the bird land. My first thought or
impression was blue jay, but even though it had its back to me, I knew my first
judgment was wrong. This was a hawk, an
accipiter to be exact. In size it was
very close to a blue jay, but it had a long barred tail and a blue gray
back. It was a sharp-shinned hawk. We
have had them visit our yard before, but not this winter. All the birds in the neighborhood knew it was
nearby, even if we had not seen it.
While I watched it flew
to a bare maple branch, in full view for all to see. I noticed a grey squirrel sitting stock still
and pressed against the trunk of the spruce, but gradually the squirrels, both
grey and red, began to venture out to eat the fallen sunflower seeds. They really didn’t have anything to fear from
this small raptor because its main prey is songbirds. At one point it turned its head and looked
down at the feeding squirrels, but then just as quickly turned away and ignored
them.
Because the hawk had
its back to the window, we could just barely see some of the rust colored,
barred feathers on its breast. But in
silhouette I could easily its sharply hooked bill. This is one of the key features found on
raptors. It is used to cut up and eat the prey it catches. Raptors are also known for their strong and
sharply curved talons. These are their
killing tools. This is why you will see
people who work with raptors wearing thick leather gloves on their hands.
The sharp-skinned hawk
is the smallest of the accipiters (next in size is the Cooper and then the
Goshawk) even so its talons can pierce the skin of the birds it catches. A ‘sharpie’ as it is known affectionately by
birders needs to eat between 20 and 25 percent of its body weight in food each
day. That comes out to about 25 grams
per day. While birds are their main
source of food, some small mammals (bat size) and large insects can fill out
their diet when needed.
This bird sat for at least 30 minutes in the
maple and the only activity we could see were the blue jays that were obviously
agitated and restless in the plum bushes further down our front field. They were calling out slander and warnings
and flying off across the road. There
was no way this little raptor was going to pick off any birds near our
feeder. Sharp-shin’s must depend on
swift flight and stealth in order to catch their prey.
We noticed that the
back feathers of this sharpie had some white blotches on them. This we assumed to be the result of the
breeding plumage molt. In advance of the
breeding season almost all birds will molt a fresh new set of feathers. Another feature of the sharp-shinned which we
could not see clearly was the color of its eye.
Immatures have a yellow eye, but as they mature the eye becomes a dark
reddish brown. Based on the color of its
feathers, this was an adult.
Most sharp-shinned
hawks migrate south for the winter months, but some will remain in the north
and are most commonly seen by people around their feeders. We don’t know where this hawk has been
hanging out for all these long, cold months, but we would be happy if it chose
to raise a family in our backwoods. They
use mixed conifer and hardwood forests for their nesting territory. Sharp-shins, like many other raptors were
decreasing in number at the middle of the last century because of the use of
pesticides. Happily their numbers began
to increase with the phasing out of those chemicals. Today, their main threat comes from logging
of their necessary habitat.
While we really enjoy
and appreciate all of the birds that come to our feeders, we know that in the
scheme of things, some will become food for predators. I can much more easily accept their loss to
feed a hawk than a feral cat. In terms
of overall depredation, the hawk’s impact is minimal.
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