(Brief) Backyard visitor

I was home this afternoon.  It was very sunny.  I was turned toward the back window and saw a flash of white coming toward a tree just past our back fence.  I knew it was a hawk...but what kind?

This a quick zoomed in picture.  I tried sneaking outside to get a better look but it flew away.

I have seen Cooper's Hawks in these woods including one that flew toward to about the same spot.  And I've also seen what I thought were Red-tailed Hawks in the woods as well...later reasoning they might have been Cooper's.  But it seems there is an overlap of territory or it was just a visitor but this appears to be a Red-tailed Hawk.  I checked with my expert (nephew Jon) and that is what he was thinking.  Seeing it fly toward me and away from me in the late afternoon sun gave me the clear memory of seeing white under the wings.  So the wing color, general shape and tail suggest Red-tailed.

A buck and some does

Interesting to see the "caravan" of does.  These are from October 16.  Still doing some catch up...

Trail cam catch up

It's been awhile since I posted.  Something about starting a new job and not working from home slowed me down.  Not as much material perhaps.


Here are some daytime photos from the trail camera captured on October 2.  Always nice to capture in the light...

Update on "Red"...our Red-shouldered Hawk

Re: Polk County Red-shouldered hawk

Fri 9/28/2018, 5:30 PM

You

Alan,

You are correct that we don't know yet if this hawk will fully recover. She just is now eating on her own!

If you don't see updates, please email... 

Thanks,

Linette

On Mon, Sep 24, 2018 at 10:07 AM Alan Andrew > wrote:

I know it's too soon to know if she will fully recover, but my wife and I would love to be there if/when she is released.

Alan

Gray tree frog relocating due to my mowing

This is likely an eastern gray tree frog but I'm comfortable calling it a gray tree frog for sure.

Had to shoo it toward the woods so I could finish mowing...



Red-shouldered hawk finally made the "Patient" page on SOAR website

We call her "Red".  Not much information here but finally saw her on the page last night. 

 

Click here for update

 

 

 

I've been e-mailing someone at SOAR and she asked for more details and of course I had those for her including cross streets and environment info.  I want them to know she was in a good area for this type of hawk.  You can click above or here is the text from the post through Sept 21...

 

 

POLK CO RED-SHOULDERED HAWK

By SOAR - Linette

3 September 2018

red-shouldered hawk

Admission Date: 3 September 2018

Outcome:

Location of Rescue: Polk County

Cause of Admission / Condition: collision with vehicle

Patient Status: Current Patient

This is the time of year when SOAR gets hatch-year 2018 raptors admitted that are underweight and struggling. This hawk did collide with a vehicle and the driver is the one who reported this incident to Iowa Bird Rehab (Jenni). This hawk is also emaciated, not sure what happened with this hawk for it to get so thin… but that happened before the collision.

Red-shouldered hawks are an Iowa endangered species even though in much of this bird’s range the population is growing.

 

Updates:

21 September 2018

This hawk is still very thin and still needs to be hand-fed.

Been busy with bucks

About a week ago, I was on the phone and looking out the window when I spotted this young buck.  I took some pictures and then some video and of course right when I shut off the video, it jumps our fence and is in our back yard.  So I picked it up from there getting a few more pics and some video including it deciding the grass was greener in my neighbor's yard...

 

 

Here was Russ inside (just kidding)…

 

Here it is jumping the fence...

 

 

And then last night, I put my trail camera out and the first image was a procession of three bucks just after midnight.  Pretty impressive.

 

 

A doe for good measure.