I Came Home Today After An Afternoon Of Birding With My Kid To Find A Red-tailed Hawk Surveying My Yard

I took this photo back in May during the Horicon Marsh Bird Festival. Spring migration was just kicking into high gear, and lots of different species were moving through, establishing territory, starting nests.

One of the paths we were walking was completely taken over by Tree Swallows, claiming every available nest box. This lovely lady must have already claimed the nest box nearby because she refused to move from her perch as we passed. She gave me a nice long look from about 10 feet away, still probably the sharpest photo I've taken of a Swallow.

[ID: A female Tree Swallow sits on a bare branch. She has a white body and throat, with dark gray head and wings. There are small flecks of blue on her forehead above a jet black beak and shiny black eyes. She clings tightly to the branch with pinkish feet, seemingly unafraid of the people nearby. End ID]

Here's a bird that took me completely by surprise. (Content warning for a predator eating/carrying prey. I've put the more graphic pics below the cut.) Last week I was working at my dining room table, waiting for a plumber to show up. I glanced out the window and saw this Cooper's Hawk land on the neighbor's roof.

[ID: A male Cooper's Hawk stands on the roof of a house. The Hawk is mostly bluish grey with orange and white stripes on the breast and legs. He has dark red eyes and a hooked yellow beak with a grey tip. He's standing at the edge of the roof, looking off to the left. There are grey and black feathers scattered about, but the roof is blocking his prey from view. The sky in the background is an overcast grey. End ID]

Of course, I immediately jumped up and grabbed my camera. Based on the smaller size and the bluish tint to the wings, I figure the Hawk was male. I noticed right away that he was bending down to pick apart and eat something. I couldn't tell what he was eating, but I could see lots of black and grey feathers scattered about.

[ID: A male Cooper's Hawk stands on the roof of a house. The Hawk is mostly bluish grey with orange and white stripes on the breast and legs. He has dark red eyes and a hooked yellow beak with a grey tip. He's standing at the edge of the roof, looking down at his prey and lifting one yellow foot with sharp, black talons. There are grey and black feathers scattered about, but the roof is blocking his prey from view. The sky in the background is an overcast grey. End ID]

He stuck around for several minutes, which gave me some time to find a good position and adjust my settings to compensate for the overcast skies. (Picture me standing on a dining room chair, slightly crouched to line lens up with the top edge of the window.)

[ID: A male Cooper's Hawk stands on the roof of a house. The Hawk is mostly bluish grey with orange and white stripes on the breast and legs. He has dark red eyes and a hooked yellow beak with a grey tip. He's standing at the edge of the roof, looking down over the edge of the roof. There are grey and black feathers scattered about, but the roof is blocking his prey from view. The sky in the background is an overcast grey. End ID]

Just as I was taking another burst, the Hawk did a little hop to get a better grip on his meal. Go ahead and scroll past this last photo if you'd rather not see the remains of what appears to be a Downy Woodpecker. All I knew in the moment was that I had held the shutter button through the whole sequence. It was only later while processing photos that I could make out enough detail on the prey for a possible ID.

[ID: A male Cooper's Hawk is shown mid-hop in the air above the roof of a house. The Hawk is mostly bluish grey with orange and white stripes on the breast and legs. He has dark red eyes and a hooked yellow beak with a grey tip. He's just flapped his wings to hop into the air and get a better grip on his prey. The prey appears to be the remains of a Downy Woodpecker, with the head and most of the upper body torn away. However, the remaining feathers appear to have the characteristic black and white pattern on the tail to suggest either a Downy or Hairy Woodpecker. There are grey and black feathers scattered about. The sky in the background is an overcast grey. End ID]

Just after that, the Hawk flew off between the houses and was gone. It made me a little sad to think that one of our regular feeder visitors was now somebody's lunch, but it's somewhat comforting to think that our neighborhood must have a fairly healthy ecosystem. At least we have enough small birds and other prey around to convince the raptors to keep coming back to their favorite hunting grounds!

We have family that live out in the woods in Walworth County, WI. It's always a treat to visit them, both for the company and the abundance of wild forest birds that visit their feeders. Their house is my one reliable place to see Tufted Titmice around here, so I had to bring my camera.

[ID: A Tufted Titmouse clings to a thin branch. It's mostly gray with white underparts, black bill, a black patch around the bill, and large black eyes. It has hints of orange under each wing and a small crest of top of its head. End ID]

The Titmice were very active at the feeder that day, but they're a tricky subject to catch. They will only perch for a second or two before seizing their moment to grab a seed at the feeder and fly off to eat it in private. So I had to keep my camera at the ready and pointed at one of their favorite landing spots to catch just a handful of frames.

[ID: An American Tree Sparrow sits on the branch of a small tree. It has streaky brown wings with two white wing bars, streaks of tan on the underparts, and a brown eye line and reddish brown cap. It has the characteristic two-tone bill for American Tree Sparrows: dark grey upper bill, yellow lower bill. End ID]

Of course, I had to grab a selection of shots for the other visitors while I was there. This American Tree Sparrow was also a first-of-year for me, seemingly the only one hanging out with the flock of Titmice, Juncos, and Chickadees.

[ID: A Black-capped Chickadee sits on a bare branch. It has grey wings and tail, with white underparts blending to cream under the wings. It has a dark black cap and throat encapsulating the tiny black beak and bright white cheek patches. End ID]

The Black-capped Chickadees were either a lot more numerous or bolder than the other birds visiting the feeders, with one or two grabbing seeds at any given moment and at least three or four others hanging out in the trees nearby looking for an opening.

[ID: A Dark-eyed Junco checks the grass near a brick walkway for food. It's likely a male from the dark grey body and head, with white underparts and tiny hints of brown in the back and wing feathers. The general dark plumage and black eye contrast with the pale pink beak. End ID]

And the Dark-eyed Juncos were happy to mostly forage on the ground in clusters near each feeder. This one in particular got quite a bit closer than the others, giving me a chance to capture a higher level of detail.

I guess I'm an owl guy now. Just last week I learned about an Eastern Screech-Owl pair that has been nesting in Monona, WI for at least three years, so I had to go take a look over the weekend. The pictures below were all taken on Sunday.

[ID: An Eastern Screech-Owl sleeps in the knotty hole of a tree. The Owl is a red morph, with tawny brown feathers on the head, wings, and breast. Dark brown streaks and white patches make for a scaly camouflage effect on the lower breast and belly. The Owl has tiny brown ear tufts that stick up from the top of her head above feathery white brows. From this angle, the Owl is facing the left side of the frame, with just a little bit of beak and talon visible among the puffed feathers. Her left eye is a black slit, tightly closed against the daylight. End ID]

I visited the nest site a couple times on Saturday between other birding excursions in the area, but had no luck. The tree pretty much hangs over the road in a residential area, so it was super easy to swing by and have a look. It may have been too cold and windy that day for the Owl to want to sleep out in the open.

[ID: An Eastern Screech-Owl sleeps in the knotty hole of a tree. The Owl is a red morph, with tawny brown feathers on the head, wings, and breast. Dark brown streaks and white patches make for a scaly camouflage effect on the lower breast and belly. The Owl has tiny brown ear tufts that stick up from the top of her head above feathery white brows. From this angle, the Owl is facing the camera directly, with just a little bit of beak and talon visible among the puffed feathers. Her eyes are black slits, tightly closed against the daylight. End ID]

I met several other nice birders that were there for exactly the same reason as me. Some just popping out of their cars for a quick look and others stopping to chat or swap birding stories and intel for a while. A mother and son from Monticello, a retiree from somewhere 90 minutes away (he didn't say) who left to seek out the same Snowy Owl I saw a week prior, folks who live just down the block and see the Screech-Owl at least once a week. We learned from past sighting reports that the red morph of this pair is the female and the grey morph is the male, due to their relative size and courtship behaviors. (With many predatory bird species, the females are generally larger than the males, even when coloration between the sexes is identical.) The owner of the house across the street explained that the female has been back living in the nest hole for a couple weeks, but she hasn't seen the male yet this year.

[ID: An Eastern Screech-Owl sleeps in the knotty hole of a tree. The Owl is a red morph, with tawny brown feathers on the head, wings, and breast. Dark brown streaks and white patches make for a scaly camouflage effect on the lower breast and belly. The Owl has tiny brown ear tufts that stick up from the top of her head above feathery white brows. From this angle, the Owl is facing to the right of the frame, with just a little bit of beak and talon visible among the puffed feathers. Her eyes are black slits, tightly closed against the daylight. End ID]

At the end of the day, I decided to wait with one other birder (who had driven about two hours from Menasha) in the hopes that the Owl would emerge before sunset. We weren't completely without luck, as the Owl decided to sleep in until around 5:30pm, when basically all light had gone from the sky. I only saw her because she immediately flew from the hole and landed on a nearby roof to take a look around. Neither of us got a single usable picture, but I could see her well enough through the binoculars to make a positive ID and log my 190th species. My compatriot had to return home that night, but I decided to keep an eye on eBird and pop back over if someone else happened to see the Owl during the day.

[ID: An Eastern Screech-Owl sleeps in the knotty hole of a tree. The Owl is a red morph, with tawny brown feathers on the head, wings, and breast. Dark brown streaks and white patches make for a scaly camouflage effect on the lower breast and belly. The Owl has tiny brown ear tufts that stick up from the top of her head above feathery white brows. From this angle, the Owl is facing the left side of the frame, with just a little bit of beak and talon visible among the puffed feathers. Her left eye is a black slit, tightly closed against the daylight. End ID]

As I'm sure you guessed from the photos in this post, other folks reported the Eastern Screech-Owl sleeping out in the open midmorning on Sunday. So I finished my chores and tossed my gear in the car for yet another short drive to Monona. And much to my delight, she was still there when I arrived, completely asleep and looking quite comfortable! (One of the birders from Saturday had mentioned that she likes to sleep out in the open when it's warmer and not so windy.) I snapped about 700 photos from various angles, then went to meet up with my good friend Rachel.

[ID: An Eastern Screech-Owl sleeps in the knotty hole of a tree. The Owl is a red morph, with tawny brown feathers on the head, wings, and breast. Dark brown streaks and white patches make for a scaly camouflage effect on the lower breast and belly. The Owl has tiny brown ear tufts that stick up from the top of her head above feathery white brows. From this angle, the Owl is facing to the right of the frame, with just a little bit of beak and talon visible among the puffed feathers. Her eyes are black slits, tightly closed against the daylight. End ID]

You see, Rachel got me into birding in the first place, and she and her partner were coming to Madison to visit and go to a hockey game that evening. I made sure to let her know that she better bring her binoculars if she was interested in taking a small detour to pick up a lifer. And being a very well-behaved Owl, the Screecher didn't move an inch from her roost. The light was better this time, so I had to snap another 600 pictures or so. We met a few more birders and checked around the base of the tree for pellets, but didn't find any. We wondered about the species of the tree (I thought ash, she leaned toward box elder), then said goodbye to the Owl. It's certainly fun to pick up a lifer when I'm out by myself, but I find it even more enjoyable to share that moment with someone else.

I didn't get a chance to go birding this past weekend, so it's time for another post from the archives. I wouldn't call this my best bit of photography, but it brings me joy nonetheless.

[ID: A female Snowy Owl rests on the ice of Lake Monona. She's crouched next to a small ridge of ice, wings folded and eyes closed to black slits. She's almost entirely white, with black flecks on her wings, breast, and head. The rest of the scene is nearly featureless white snow, with just the occasional ripple made by the wind. End ID]

Last year around this time (late January) we had experienced an irruption of Snowy Owls in Wisconsin. Two owls in particular chose Lake Monona as their favorite rest spot for a couple of months, and they became locally famous for their continued presence around the Monona Terrace.

I had never seen a Snowy Owl in person before, so I took several opportunities to wander the lake and the surrounding areas hoping to catch a glimpse of my first one. It wasn't until late February that I was walking along the Terrace and spotted a lump on the ice that was much darker and less reflective than anything else out there. My heart began to thump faster and my pace increased as I realized what I was seeing. The Owl was resting in the windbreak caused by a small ridge of ice, so I carefully crept into the barest edge of photography range so as not to disturb her.

I probably spent a half hour crouched on the ice, taking the occasional photo each time she moved. Mostly I was happy to sit in her presence and try to match that level of calm and restfulness. I was inspired to make this post today because I just learned that we've had another Snowy Owl visiting Dane County the past two weeks. I'm thinking it might be a good time to go for a drive, looking for a speckled white mound among the corn stubble...

I've been away for a bit! Turns out that it's harder to find time to take photos of birds, much less blog about it, when you have a second tiny child to care for. My baby was born in May, essentially right in the middle of peak migration for Wisconsin, so I've spent far less time gently cradling a camera this year and much more time with a wiggly kid slung over my shoulder. However, my partner is kind enough to carve out the odd hour for me to sit by myself and look up.

[ID: A Palm Warbler sits on a branch, wings folded, looking toward the sunlight. The bird is just a couple inches tall, and is sporting the mostly pale plumage that is typical of Warblers in the fall. Head in profile, the bird looks out with a dark brown eye from gray head feathers with a somewhat darker gray cap and eye stripe. The breast is a lightly streaked pale yellow, and only the under-tail coverts show a brighter yellow that would be expected of this species in spring. End ID]

I found this individual taking a small break in one of the trees in my backyard. Normally, Warblers like this one are constantly in motion, darting around in search of food to fuel their long southerly migration. But this one must have had their fill for the time being, content to sit still and take in the sights of our little patch in Madison. It was early afternoon, and the light was sifting beautifully through the leaves of the trees. I can understand why they would choose this place to rest for a moment.

[ID: The same Palm Warbler sits on a smaller branch, this time presenting their right flank to the camera. Their wings are showing the same light shade of gray as their head. From this angle, it's apparent how fluffed the little bird is, insulating themselves against the slight chill in the air. End ID]

I knew right away that this was a Palm Warbler from the way they pumped their tail up and down, up and down. Even when they were otherwise still, that tail was still going at times. What were they thinking about on this brief stop, looking south toward the lake and beyond to their destination? Did they have any children this spring? Would they take them to Cuba? Puerto Rico? Surely someone has to show the young ones the way to their winter home...

[ID: A portrait of a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak. She's shown from the shoulders up, in high detail. Prominent in the frame is her big, dark eye with lines of brown and tan around her head leading to a large, pale pink beak. End ID]

Here's a picture of the most cooperative bird I've encountered in the wild. This past August, I had recently upgraded to a new camera and was on a hike with my Father-in-Law at Antigo Lake. We were slowly walking the boardwalk when I saw something moving in the bushes just on the other side of the railing.

I knew right away that it was a female Rose-breasted Grosbeak because of, you know, the huge beak. She sat just about 6 ft away and held perfectly still, allowing me to find a nice window through the branches and take a few bursts. Even though I was still learning the new equipment, I believe this remains the most detailed picture of a bird I've taken to date. Go ahead and zoom in on the eye. You can pick out all kinds of tiny feather structures that had been totally invisible to me until then, lost in either motion blur or the lower resolution of the sensor. Lately I've been seeking out birds that never sit still or won't go anywhere near people, but I should really spend more time taking portraits of birds that are more comfortable with presence.

I went birding at Aldo Leopold Nature Center in Monona, WI today. One highlight of the hike was all the American Tree Sparrows foraging in the tall grass around the center. This one in particular was checking me out quite a bit from various perches just off the path. (I could tell it was the same one from that little bit of something stuck to their bill.)

[ID: An American Tree Sparrow clings to a small twig. The Sparrow fills the frame, showing the details of the tan and brown streaks in its wings, broken up by two white wing bars. Its head is mostly gray with a brown eyeline cutting across a dark eye and a ruddy brown cap. It has the characteristic two-tone bill, grey above and yellow below, with a small bit of something black stuck to the lower bill. End ID]

I also got to see two distinct Red-tailed Hawks wheeling around overhead, likely looking for prey. The first one is likely immature, judging from the banded tail without much red in it, while the second one is clearly an adult.

[ID: An immature Red-tailed Hawk soars in an overcast sky. The hawk is mostly while, with brown streaks on the head and breast. the wings have flecks of brown, and the light shining through the wings and tail show thin bars. End ID]

[ID: An adult Red-tailed Hawk flies toward the camera at an angle. The hawk is mostly white with a brown head and brown edges on the outstretched wings. Its yellow legs are hanging down, showing an aluminum leg band on the left one. The tail is fanned and tawny brown, indicating that this is a mature adult. End ID]

There were also lots of Dark-eyed Juncos mixed in with the Tree Sparrows. They were generally more skittish, but I did snag this nice photo of a Junco checking the scene from the top of a bare bush.

[ID: A Dark-eyed Junco sits on a bare twig at the top of a bush, looking just to the left of straight at the camera. It is almost entirely grey, with white underparts and a pale pink beak. End ID]

Back in May of 2022, we were out at the UW Madison Arboretum looking for Warblers. We came across a couple of older folks with binoculars staring intently into the trees, so I thought for sure they found a good one. But no! Turns out they had spotted this little guy.

[ID: A juvenile Barred Owl sleeps in the shade of a tree. It's mostly brown and fuzzy, with grey marks throughout and a browner "mask" around the eyes and beak. It's sitting on a large branch with a pair of slanted tree trunks on either side, and a few young green leaves framing the scene. End ID]

This is a baby Barred Owl, having a little snooze in the shade. They woke up briefly to look around and check us out, but they seemed perfectly content to sit in full view from the path as people jogged by and stopped to peek at them.

I went looking for spring ducks the other day. The boardwalk between Upper Mud Lake and Lake Waubesa in Madison is usually a great place to see all the weird waterfowl that migrate through in March. And they were there! The trouble this year is we had such a warm February that almost all the ice was already gone from the lakes. So pretty much everyone except the Mallards were way out in the middle of the water. And this goof:

[ID: An American Coot stands on a small patch of vegetation at the edge of a lake. They're turned away from the camera, but looking back over their shoulder. The Coot has a slate grey body about the size and shape of a football, and black head with a bone white bill and a dark red eye. Their lobed feet are a pale yellowish green, great for walking on top of loose marsh vegetation and mud. End ID]

I'm quite fond of American Coots. Silly name aside, they have an awkward profile, beady little eyes, and beautifully weird feet. We only see them here during spring and fall migration, so it's a little treat to have flocks of them passing through. And this one in particular didn't seem to mind us watching them pick along the shore from the boardwalk. Just a sassy little glance over their shoulder before going back to their foraging.