This morning, I got a very cool surprise. I went to let the dog out to pee, and a big ol' Swainson's Hawk was sitting in a nearby tree. A flock of house finches was chirping up a storm at him, and he flew to a slightly farther away tree. Then, as I'm standing there watching, a Red-tailed Hawk flies up into another nearby tree! The finches leave off pestering the Swainson's to chirp all around the Reddy.
Then I got my camera.
I'll post pictures tonight. I just had to share because what a cool thing to wake up to!
Edit:
I'm back, and after looking at the photos I took, I realized that I had seen a dark and light phase Swainsons! For a little bit I thought maybe the light one was even a juvenile, but I've finally decided they must both have been adults, and likely a mated pair. Very cool to get to see the light and dark phases right next to each other.
now, photos! Apologies for the shoddy quality, I zoomed as best I could, but the pictures got pixelly.
First, the Light Morph Swainson's Hawk
This is where I first saw him, far away, but out of the sticks.
Then he moved up closer, but got in the sticks of the dead tree.
Then I zoomed out so you can see the flock of house finches pestering him
And finally, a silly photo of him looking at me upside-down!
My pictures of the Dark Morph didn't come out as well because he was farther away.
Lastly, I got a couple of very nice, but silhouetted shots of the light morph while he was flying from tree to tree.
Lastly, after work today, I took my dog out to my favorite hiking spot- we can finally get in there again, all the construction that had the road blocked is finished- YAY!
We saw lots of indeterminate brown and grey birds, heard even more birds, including something that said, "WERK!" I have no idea what that was. We saw and heard lots of kingbirds, some kind of oriel, finches and sparrows, a couple of hawks and pelicans, a kestrel, A female blackbird of one kind or another... And we saw a marmot and a few cotton tail rabbits, including young bunnies!
But the coolest thing- the thing that made me wish I'd known I was going for a short hike and brought my camera...
I had my dog, Rosco, with me, and he was ahead of me a bit, and he went off the trail and into the brush, and suddenly I hear a yip and a snarl and barking. I called Rosco back to me, and he came, like a good boy. I wasn't sure what he'd encountered, but he didn't have any porcupine quills, or smell like skunk. We walked a few yards farther, I kept Rosco near me, and then we saw her.
A BEAUTIFUL female coyote! At first, she was very shy and frightened, had all her hackles up in a full mowhawk, because Rosco had scared her. I think what happened was he thought she was just a dog and he ran over to say hi, and she panicked and that was the yip, or maybe she objected to him trying to sniff her butt and it was him who yipped. Either way, either she ran and he snarled and barked and gave chase, or she bit at him first and then he went after her for her rudeness. He wasn't hurt at all.
After that, she paced alongside us, only a few yards away, in the brush. I got to see her very well, several times. Once she knew Rosco wasn't going to chase her any more, she would pause when we did and just watch us, her ears up, her bright brown eyes looking at us, her tongue hanging out with a bit of a doggy smile, her hackles back down and her tail relaxed. Her fur was reddish brown and looked so soft and plush. She had great weight on her, not thin and not fat, she looked like probably a pup from last year who hadn't had pups of her own this year. No sign of mange or anything, she was a picture of health. I've never gotten to see a wild coyote so close for so long. Even the captive coyotes I've seen in zoos and such didn't look as amazing as she did. She was SO COOL!