How did I know?

At the end of my post, yesterday, I mentioned that a second year female (in my opinion) Cooper’s hawk was trapped inside the National Library in Washington DC.  Well, tonight, on the NBC National Evening News a follow up story reported that the juvenile female Cooper’s hawk had been trapped and moved to a rehabilitation facility.  So, how did I know the age and sex of this bird from watching the news?  Stay tuned, and I’ll let you know.  :)

The bird flying around the library was similar to these two pics that I took outside the VIS at Anahuac.  While not my best bird shots, they will suffice to explain my identification.  First, I determined the sex by the size of the bird.  Cooper’s hawks are accipiters with short rounded wings, and a relatively long tail.  The females of this species are decidedly larger than the males.  Now for the age part.  The bird in the newscast and this bird were born last year; hence they are in their second calendar year.  I know that because of the striping of the feathers on the breast.  A first or second year bird will have brown vertical stripes on breast feathers.  Older birds, after a late summer molt will have reddish orange horizontal stripes on the breast and gray wings and back.  Another feature not seen in my pics or on the news video is the color of the eye.  Young birds have a yellow eye, and adult birds have a red eye.  I have read that up to 80% of young birds don’t live through their first year.  Many make mistakes, like flying inside of a library where usually there aren’t any small birds to eat.  :)  (bird brains, maybe:))

 

I was actually feeling a bit better this morning, and as the day progressed, I didn’t seem to regress.  Thank goodness!  The electrical problem with the toad lights was solved, and the new washer/dryer was installed amazingly quickly.  There are just a few wrap up things to take care of tomorrow, including the bill.  I’m feeling better, but the thought of hooking up and driving down the road tomorrow was something I wasn’t sure I was ready for.  As I began to bring this up with the owners, they assured me that I could stay as long as I needed to before I pulled out.  What a relief.  I need at least another day of recuperation before tackling the rigors of the road.  I’ll let you know tomorrow if it looks like I’ll have to sell pencils on the side of the road, or rob a bank.  :)

 

Thanks for stopping by…. talk to you later,  Judy