A Surprise Guest

Our local birds are usually active feeders in the morning, enjoying the easy pickings offered on our deck (suet and seed feeders), but today I noticed shortly before 10 a.m. that there were no birds to be seen anywhere.

And then I saw an unusually large bird in the big cedar tree just beyond our back fence. It was clearly not one of our usual "flock," and I quickly took a few photos, hoping to identify it. I longed for a better zoom lens, as mine is middle-grade and goes only to 300 mm, but by cropping in on the image (see extras), I could see enough to determine that the newcomer was likely a juvenile Northern Goshawk.

The "Basic Description" paragraph in that link is enough to chill the heart of any smaller bird! The "Cool Facts" section was fascinating -- take a look, if you have time. (If time is short, here's the first cool fact: The name goshawk comes from the Old English word for "goose hawk," a reference to this raptor's habit of preying on birds. Falconers have trained goshawks for more than 2,000 years...)

Apparently this bird also struck fear into the heart of one of our common small mammals -- the squirrel in the extra had flattened itself on a branch some distance below the hawk, and didn't move for several minutes, even after the hawk had flown away.

Saturday will provide gentler images, as I'm off to the Bellingham Farmers Market in the morning.

Blip 1971