Foovay’s Cauldron

Posts Tagged ‘juvenile sharp shinned hawk’

As you can tell, this young Sharp Shinned hawk has gotten quite used to me being outside working. In fact, he’s gotten so casual about my presence that he has been less than 20 feet from me twice today as I worked on the fence repairs.

But this morning he astounded me with some behaviour I have never seen from a hawk.

I was doing the morning feed when I caught a bit of movement from the corner of my eye. I was just opening the chicken pen to feed them, so I eased the gate shut and turned my head. This young hawk had landed on the ground ten feet or so from a big brush pile where we pile the mesquite we cut down for this or that. Of course, the pile is always full of rabbits and birds and that’s just alright with us.

My first thought was perhaps I had flushed him off a fresh kill but I was wrong. He stood still a few minutes, then lowered his head so his body was in a straight line and took several very slow careful steps forward. When he got just a foot or two from the pile he pounced into it! Small birds burst out the top, twittering in panic with him right in the middle of the flock trying to catch all of them at once from the looks of it. The whole group went straight up in the air and then circled around behind the barn where I couldn’t see them with him right in the middle of them. I don’t think he caught him one as I’ve been seeing him around the house and barn all day – which is how I got these photos.

I have never seen a hawk stalk prey along the ground like that, let alone purposely flushing bird from a brush pile. Next thing you know he’ll be buying himself a springer spaniel puppy to train!

I haven’t gotten a whole lot done online this week, other than some new coloring pages requested for an adult. I’ve gotten a number of really wonderful coloring page requests this week. It really reminds me of why I really do line art and share it online. Yeah, I’d love to make a living – but no amount of money can make my heart feel warm like the email I’ve got this week from; a woman whose husband is ill but loves to color and finds it calming, a young man who teaches classes about animals in an orphanage, and a beekeeper who is creating a small book to hand out to local children about the importance of bees.

Between that and our little patch of desert with all it’s wonderful denizens, I am so blessed.

Hope you are having a great week.

Summer Fey Foovay