Birds – Overlooked Nature

Cooper’s Hawk

Some urban wildlife for you. This Cooper’s hawk was chowing down on an unknown smaller bird in my yard this morning. Please excuse the quality — it was taken through a dirty window. I didn’t want to go outside and scare it off.

Oops!

A belated response to the Daily Press weekly photo challenge: Oops!

I am an utterly hopeless bird photographer. My camera is bad for it, but on top of that, I’m bad at it. The only birds I have ever successfully photographed have been at the beach, where there is tons of bright light and the birds are more or less standing still.

Any other bird? It looks semi-okay on my camera’s little screen, but then I get it onto my computer and, wow. What is that, even? Is that a bird? It just looks like a blurry, grainy, underexposed mess.

This is one of my better attempts.

Common Nighthawk

The common nighthawk is a swift, graceful flyer capable of catching and eating insects on the wing. Its territorial “call” isn’t really a call; it’s a loud whirring buzz made by its wings as it dives. You’d think such a bird would nest high in a tree, as close to the sky as possible, right?

Nope. The nighthawk doesn’t build a nest at all. It just lays its eggs right on the ground, where their speckled pattern blends in with the dirt and leaves.