We probably have about one hundred gambel's quail, maybe two hundred mourning doves, 40 lesser goldfinches, 40 house finches, and more sparrows that you can count, on our property daily. With that much "food" it is not too surprising that we also have great horned owls, cooper's hawks, sharp shinned hawks, and harris hawks. The hawks like sitting on the top of a very tall (dead by lightning) mesquite tree. The cooper's and sharp shinned will also perch in other mesquites or palo verdes just ten feet off the ground. We sometimes surprise each other that way. But, sometimes one will just sit waiting patiently for food to fly by. In these cases I can get reasonably close for a photo. This juvenile cooper's hawk let me take photos from a couple different angles without flying off. I finally said, "thank you," and left him to do his business -- me, too.
No comments:
Post a Comment