Althouse: Seen from my desk this morning...

February 4, 2016

Seen from my desk this morning...

... a hawk!

48 comments:

Mid-Life Lawyer said...: That's awesome!; 2/4/16, 4:04 PM
Michael K said...: He needs to have a drone in his claws. Or hers.; 2/4/16, 4:11 PM
Chuck said...: I've seen several hawks in Professor Althouse's neighborhood. Or, I've seen that hawk several times. And it's a badass. I've seen that hawk take out a squirrel (exciting and brutal), and go after lots of local birds. He or she likes the big concrete playground of Randall Elementary where his speed and vision is used to hunting advantage.; 2/4/16, 4:11 PM
Original Mike said...: I live next to a 300-foot radio tower that the hawks (plural) love. A huge gang of crows used to hang out on it, hulking over the neighborhood, but no longer. I've watched the hawks take rabbits, mourning doves, and chipmunks in my yard. Go hawks!; 2/4/16, 4:16 PM
dreams said...: Here is a desk for you and maybe better viewing, or not.

http://altwork.com/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=CPC&utm_term=Focus%2C+Early+Adopter&utm_campaign=Facebook+Focus+Ads+Men+Desktop; 2/4/16, 4:34 PM
Tom C said...: Looks like a Cooper's hawk!; 2/4/16, 4:44 PM
Quaestor said...: Looks like a Cooper's hawk!

That's what it is (Accipiter cooperi), and of reproductive age. A similar but smaller raptor is the sharp-shinned hawk (Accipiter striatus). You can tell one from the other quickly by looking at the tail feathers -- if the tips are rounded, it's a Cooper's, straight it's a sharpie.

Usually they avoid such ab exposed perch, but this one is roused out and comfortable, probably digesting a songbird.; 2/4/16, 4:57 PM
Quaestor said...: I saw a Cooper's take a male cardinal on Sunday afternoon ten days ago. Three cardinals were arguing over possession of my bird feeder. One would jump on and snatch a sunflower seed, then another would dive-bomb the diner and drive him off, then the third would take advantage and snatch a seed -- back and forth, a three-way cut-throat donnybrook. Then without warning the local hawk stooped in and carried away the one standing right on top of the feeder. The other two retreated to a nearby holly and didn't approach the feeder again for hours.

I took it as an omen.; 2/4/16, 5:09 PM
chuck said...: > I took it as an omen.

Heh. Now one wonders what venture was under discussion when the gods spoke.; 2/4/16, 5:28 PM
HoodlumDoodlum said...: Quick, use a simile to describe how it's watching you!; 2/4/16, 5:34 PM
Roughcoat said...: I CAUGHT this morning morning’s minion, king-
dom of daylight’s dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding
Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding
High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing
In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,
As a skate’s heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding
Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding
Stirred for a bird,—the achieve of; the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here
Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion 10
Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

-----

"My heart in hiding stirred for a bird"!

Which is more breathtaking: the images that Hopkins creates with language, or the language itself, the poem itself?; 2/4/16, 5:36 PM
Quaestor said...: Now one wonders what venture was under discussion when the gods spoke.

Perhaps the value of their Superbowl rings on the collector's market.; 2/4/16, 5:40 PM
garage mahal said...: Here is a Cooper's Hawk I saw a few weeks ago not far from where I live. I've spotted it several times in a neighborhood that has an extensive network of bird feeders. I really love this hawk, I've only seen a few Sharp-shinned in my area.; 2/4/16, 5:48 PM
Quaestor said...: That is ONE HELLVA GOOD photograph, garage! Please accept my sincere congratulations. These guys are very wary and hard to photograph so well. This one is about three years old, perhaps four. You can tell by the eyes, which progressively change color as the bird matures, from golden yellow at birth to ruby red by about seven years.

Biologists believe the eye color is a mating signal -- red means "mate with me 'cause I'm a success".; 2/4/16, 6:05 PM
William said...: They consider the salt in the human eyeball quite tasty. It's not a staple of their diet, but they've been known to swoop in and snatch an eyeball out of the sockets of bird watchers. It's done very quickly. You have to be very careful and wear protective eye gear when watching hawks.; 2/4/16, 7:01 PM
Bob Ellison said...: Yes, beautiful photograph, garage mahal.; 2/4/16, 7:04 PM
madAsHell said...: The official Bernie Sanders Drinking Game!
Every time Bernie mentions a free government program, chug somebody else's beer!

In other news, Maurice White of Earth, Wind and Fire has passed on.; 2/4/16, 7:07 PM
garage mahal said...: Q,
Here is another look at that hawk.

I wondered that myself, about the eye color on this particular bird, how it seems to be in transition to red and how old it might be. I see mostly juveniles in my birding runs, like this specimen from last September.

Hawks around Madison aren't skittish at all. Some Red-tailed are like pets.; 2/4/16, 7:18 PM
Bob Ellison said...: Is this your profession, garage mahal? You've got a talent there. All of those photos are NatGeo stuff.; 2/4/16, 7:22 PM
garage mahal said...: Bob,
Just a dude with a entry level DSLR body, a new/later life obsession, and a nice, crisp lens. The Canon 300mm f/4 prime is an older, but truly awesome lens [if you can get in close for birding.] Relatively cheap too.; 2/4/16, 7:32 PM
Bob Ellison said...: Well, please keep shooting and posting. It's good stuff.; 2/4/16, 7:34 PM
garage mahal said...: Sure.; 2/4/16, 7:52 PM
Jaq said...: 300 mm f/4 prime? OK, I'm jealous.; 2/4/16, 7:55 PM
Jaq said...: Facebook has a doodad that shows how people feel about the debate, about 60% are either angry or disappointed, and about 25% are excited or impressed.

But don't worry, Hillary has this election in the bag, resistance is futile!; 2/4/16, 7:57 PM
Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...: Cool.; 2/4/16, 8:03 PM
Limited blogger said...: No debate thread?; 2/4/16, 8:12 PM
Original Mike said...: Missing a great debate. Hillary is not part of the Democrat establishment because she is a woman.; 2/4/16, 8:26 PM
bleh said...: Hillary is a real piece of work.; 2/4/16, 8:26 PM
rehajm said...: Nice hawk shots Ann and Garage. We've got a Red Tail flying around the Common. Haven't had one set up shop in a while- might catch a look at one from the Fenway once in a while...; 2/4/16, 8:26 PM
Original Mike said...: Hillary attacking Sanders for bringing up her speaking fees.; 2/4/16, 8:27 PM
garage mahal said...: Fur is flying at this debate tonight. Time to gut it open tonight.; 2/4/16, 8:28 PM
bleh said...: Hillary is unhinged. She lacks a presidential temperament.; 2/4/16, 8:29 PM
Original Mike said...: Potty break.; 2/4/16, 8:32 PM
Quaestor said...: The theory says the Accipiter eye color is a social signal (every species in the genus follows this pattern, btw). Eyases have golden eyes, which seems to help trigger nurturing behavior in the parents -- much like the yellow tissue in the mouths of bay robins. As the babies fledge and grow more muscular and coordinated their eyes darken to a hazel color, which signals another change in parenting behavior -- kills are still delivered to the nest but the butchery is left to the young'uns... and so one until the passage, by which time the juveniles are either independent hunters or dead. Accipiter family life is pretty brief and brutal.

Red-tails are more social across generations. Juveniles sometimes hang out with their parents even after a new clutch have been hatched. This sociability may account for their being like pets, as you put. (I've seen this very often, and trained red-tails are easy-going and very gentle.) Red-tails (Buteo jamaicensis) are by far the most successful and wide-spread raptor in North America, and their social cohesion probably explains it. Harris hawks are even more social. They live in extended families and hunt more like wolves than typical raptors.; 2/4/16, 8:32 PM
Limited blogger said...: Why are they both so angry? And the aggressive hectoring can not be winning anybody over, can it? This is a tough slog.; 2/4/16, 8:32 PM
Original Mike said...: Hillary has chutzpah. Sander's mentioning her speaking fees is illegitimate because he can't prove there was ever a quid pro quo.; 2/4/16, 8:34 PM
Humperdink said...: Every opening Hillary! gives the Bern, he lets it slip through his fingers. He backs off every time. I am beginning to think he is in this campaign as a side line.; 2/4/16, 8:36 PM
Meade said...: Hillary takes umbrage at the vast left-wing conspiracy smear of Bernie et al.; 2/4/16, 8:39 PM
Meade said...: Quid pro Clintons.; 2/4/16, 8:40 PM
Original Mike said...: Rachel now asking about speaking fees. Hillary says Wall Street is trying to defeat her.

I guess they gave her all that money to make her look greedy. Sneaky, sneaky, sneaky.; 2/4/16, 8:41 PM
Fritz said...: Every time I think I have a Coopers in the backyard, it turns out to be just another Broadwing. Keeps the squirrels alert.

http://fritz-aviewfromthebeach.blogspot.com/2015/12/squirrel-its-whats-for-breakfast.html; 2/4/16, 8:44 PM
Original Mike said...: F Chuck wants Hillary to release the transcripts of her Wall Street speeches.

"I'll look into it." Then says something about Obama getting Osama. WTF?; 2/4/16, 8:47 PM
Limited blogger said...: Johnson Controls? Yeah they are enemy number one around here.; 2/4/16, 8:47 PM
garage mahal said...: Hillary looked absolutely horrible. Shady. Defensive. I only wish Bernie would have stuck the shiv in this ridiculous charade once and for all. Right here and right now. Maybe next time.; 2/4/16, 8:59 PM
Big Mike said...: @garage, possibility number one is that Bernie is fundamentally not ruthless enough. Possibility two, is that he is having a great deal of fun as a candidate, but isn't really interested in being President because the job would be a lot less fun. I lean towards the second, even if it's a subconscious thing and not a conscious calculation.; 2/4/16, 10:11 PM
Simon Kenton said...: It was a midsummer afternoon and the forbs on the slope behind the house, outside my window, had grown to about 2 feet tall. I saw something brownish moving very fast at about the level of the vegetation, just a flash of impression, and thought, "Ah, an immature Cooper's hawk." I got up and moved quickly to the next window beside mine. It was a fawn, still in spots, running desperately, parting the plants. Behind it, bounding lazily, its tail whipping side to side, was a lion.

Forty minutes later, in broad daylight, a doe was wandering our road, looking up the slope.; 2/5/16, 8:50 AM
Rusty said...: garage mahal said...
Bob,
Just a dude with a entry level DSLR body, a new/later life obsession, and a nice, crisp lens. The Canon 300mm f/4 prime is an older, but truly awesome lens [if you can get in close for birding.] Relatively cheap too.

My wife is a semi professional travel photographer. She got rid of all but one Canon DSLR bodies. Instead she uses the Yashika version of the Leica viewfinder camera. All the Canon lenses fit and with just the lens it came with it will fit in her purse.; 2/5/16, 10:56 AM
Anthony said...: Niiiiiiice. I saw one sitting in a tree up in Fond du Lac a few months ago, actually doing its call (which I believe is the most overused sound effect in all cinema). We have them all over Washington but they rarely are close enough and don't make much noise.; 2/5/16, 12:15 PM