zooriffic

a little gallery of zoo shots from my San Diego trip.
crown eagle - hawk related
thoughtful little guy planning his escape from swamp monkey land.


woodpecker giraffes at 16ft and 18ft....heather & matt say "wow"
if I were a warthog I would nap there too.

Internet Hawk Hunting

I thought that as I wrote about my love of hawks here on the old blog- I should really extend my knowledge of hawks to more that just identifying them as I drive them on the highway. This thought occurred to me while walking the dog last week. It seems that we have a little flock of red-tailed hawks living in the neighborhood. I have counted 6 of them flying and soaring over head in the last couple of weeks. So I started to do a little internet Hawk Hunting.

In my search I came upon this E-book, Life Histories of North American Birds found at http://www.birdsbybent.com. I intend to look at it further, as I found it very interesting and much of it is written as though it were a story of hawk-hunting, not just a factual retelling. I thought perhaps I would leave a passage here:



"The ordinary flight of the red-tailed hawk is rather slow and heavy, as it travels along in a straight line, with rather slow wing strokes. But its soaring flight high in the air is inspiring, as it mounts gracefully, gathering altitude rapidly, with no apparent effort, with its broad wings and tail widely spread and motionless except for occasional adjustments to changing air currents. Once, as I stood on the brink of a precipice looking down over a broad valley, I saw below me a red-tailed hawk floating over the valley and looking downward for game; it was facing a strong wind and was perhaps buoyed up by rising air currents, as it was poised as motionless as if suspended on a wire; it remained in one spot for three or four minutes and then sailed over to another spot a few rods away, where it hung for a similar period...Illustrating its marvelous powers of vision, he says: "A clear morning in March, I saw a Red-tail circling over the meadows; every circle took him higher and higher in the air, until at an altitude where he appeared no larger than a blackbird, he stopped, and with nearly closed wings, descended like an arrow to a tree near by me; from this perch, almost the same instant he had alighted, he flew to the ground and snatched from its grassy covert a mouse. The momentum with which this bird passed through the atmosphere produced a sound not very unlike that of the rush of distant water."



My quest for hawk-knowledge is surely not done yet. I will post facts as I find them.


* thanks to camilla fox for taking this picture and google images for showing it to me http://cfox.livejournal.com/17540.html. yes this is way better than I could have taken from the road.

Hawk Hunting- #3

Just a quick post here to log in my two hawk sightings this weekend. One occured while driving home from the ever wonderful Home Depot- the 2nd occured while walking the dog yesterday afternoon. There is no picture as the camera was sort of "taking a rest" this weekend.

Also spotted was a parking lot filled -oh and I mean literally FILLED- with various water fowl. Ducks, geese, swans- the prettiest were the geese though. There were several that were light brown and white- and with thier orange beaks and feet they were looking quite chic as well. This lot filled with birds was near the historic Wayside Inn and in the same lot as Esler's American Bakery.

Anyway, onward and upward. I shall post more this week- as I bet I can conjure a few things to say than the past week.

Addition 3/6/07: So on my way home from work last night- I also spotted a deer mucnhing on some shrubbery in someone's front yard. Still not having the camera I could not turn around and take a picture. What was really amazing was that this is not a "deer hangout". Its a house on the corner of a busy rt near a very busy intersection. Poor deer. They have no place left to go.

I was bummed not to be able to take the picture though- as this was a funny little deer who was actually kind of chubby. Probably from eating the neighborhood shrubs, eh?

hawk hunting...part 2

yes today is declared the 2nd greatest day in blogging history. a hawk was spotted as I was leaving work. it pays to work 100 yards from the highway I tell you. I was very glad to have my trusty cannon power shot with me in the car. I think I need to give extra credit to my new glasses as well. if only I could get a telephoto lens for moments like these.

Hawk Hunting Part 1

Saturday was a lovely day for a drive. We headed out on 495 to portsmouth for an afternoon. the husband wanted to check out the bull moose and I figured we would end up eating at a favorite spot, The Friendly Toast, so off we went.

however i didn't know that it would be such a great day in blogging history.

you may or may not know that while driving in the car I LOVE looking for wildlife along the road ways. especially hawks. they are by far the best for 'hunting'. I usually express this by shouting HAWK- even if I am mid-sentence when I spy one.

so saturday was indeed a great day for hawks. we spotted 11 of the little devils on our 70 mile journey. see below.....

what's that? you don't see them? well you're just not looking hard enough.

ok here's one more. this guy was all about the camera. (thank you murph)

technorati tags:hawk, portsmouth