Hawk sighting
January 12th, 2009 by Brianna
Sighted in a cottonwood tree in a neighbor’s yard yesterday evening:
This is the second time we’ve sighted the hawk at the same perch. Anyone care to ID?
Posted in wildlife
6 Responses
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About Seeds
Seeds is about my experiences with nature and gardening in Austin, Texas. Austin lies on the border of two natural regions: the Blackland Prairie and the Edwards Plateau. My family's house and garden are located in Northwest Austin; we garden beneath cedar elms and live oaks in dry, rocky shade.
January 12th, 2009 at 10:01 am
Woohoo! A new post!
I’ve tried to get shots of birds in the trees by our balcony, but there’s mesh netting to keep them out that gets in the way.
Glad you’re still reading.
Nathan took this shot with the telephoto lens while I was inside wranglin’ the babies. Hard to find time to get outside and take photos right now.
-Brianna
January 12th, 2009 at 7:56 pm
I’m fairly certain it’s a Red-Tailed Hawk. They are pretty common and live here. We have one (or it could be several!) who lives around here and I see it swoop through or around our backyard periodically looking for little critters in the field behind our house. Did you get to see it fly? It’s feather pattern is beautiful from underneath – very detailed. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks for the ID, Diana. We also thought it was a red-tailed hawk, but nice to have someone else confirm.
-Brianna
January 14th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
Yep, that’s a fully mature Red Tail Hawk. If you or your neighbors are missing any cats, that would be the culprit. They mostly feed on rats and cottontails but if the hunting is bad they start hunting bigger stuff.
Thanks, Bob. We could use a good predator for the rat population in our neighborhood.
-Brianna
January 17th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
We have had a red tailed hawk come swooping down into our garden chasing the mocking bird. On both occasions I think we saved the birds life just because we took the hawk by surprise. I think they are also hunting the cotton rats, at least i hope they are.
I’m also quite happy for our hawk to hunt the neighborhood rats. They’re really a nuisance all over central Austin.
-Brianna
January 24th, 2009 at 9:08 am
We had a Harris Hawk hanging out a few weeks ago – and seemed very interested in our little dog, Red. That hawk must not have realized just how fat Red’s become over the winter – no way it could have flown with her! I love to watch a hawk fly and hunt over fields and pastures.
Our dog Sam is a Great Dane, so there’s little chance the hawk in our neighborhood will view him as a tasty treat. I also love to see a big bird of prey fly and hunt. I haven’t yet seen this hawk fly–I’ve only seen it perched.
-Brianna
January 28th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
There seems to be a bit of a Hawk theme this January. Mother Nature’s garden and Cultivating Paradise (like that gratuitous plug for my blog?) both have recent Hawk sightings. http://seeds.sunriseruby.org/2009/01/12/hawk-sighting/ and
http://cultivatingparadise.blogspot.com/2009/01/i-love-to-watch-hawks-hunt-over.html
Neat! Thanks for the links.
-Brianna