Stacy writes:
I was on my porch last evening (south of 40th, on Meridian) when I heard a rustling in my neighbor’s tree. I looked up in time to see a small raptor wing its way across my yard, right at eye level, maybe 10 feet away. I think it was some kind of hawk or falcon, but I don’t know much about bird identification. It was around a foot long, from beak to tail. I got the impression it was full-grown, and it was grey and white striped. I think it had a yellow band on one leg. I was amazed to see a creature like that in our area, and I was wondering if it’s a local resident, or if anyone knows what kind of bird it might have been?
Hide your cats and chickens.
Peregrine Falcon? The interwebs have good images . . .
Or Kestrel, though they’re fairly small. Those are the two most likely to be hanging around the neighborhood, I think.
Maybe they can take out the newly banned roosters.
Seattle area has a large Red-tailed Hawk population. Keep an eye out along I-5 on light polls, it’s prime hunting grounds.
http://www.seattleaudubon.org/birdweb/bird_details.aspx?id=106
Steve
There’s been a Cooper’s hawk around the neighborhood for the last couple of years.
It is a sparrow hawk. there are both a kestrel and sparrow hawk pairs nesting in the neighborhood. they have been here for several years. the kestrel can often be seen hunting the area from 41st to the wallingford park it has a favorite tall apple tree it hangs in. the sparrow hawk nest in – on second thought never mind leave it alone. it has been here about two years.
I’ve seen him hanging on 38th and Bagley. It’s defintiely not the red-tailed hawk. Much smaller and gray-er. I thought it was a kestrel until I saw one of those at the zoo, so I imagine it’s the sparrow hawk.
At 5:30 today (Saturday), I heard a short, sharp call and looked up, expecting to see an angry robin: it was a falcon. The image with bright sun shining above its wings was of white neck and torso, grayish viceroy wing lines on top and bottom, with orange or umber wing-fill (these are made-up terms; hope they give a picture). A second falcon appeared seconds later. As the 2 drew lazy figure 8s overhead, riding the currents without flap, a third appeared. The 3 kept sailing, getting higher, continuing calls in single syllables of 4 downward-turning short “words,” followed by a 5th polysyllabic ending. Within about 5 minutes they’d separated, disappeared to the east, then one and soon a second returned to my vision and sailed back west, high — no dives. They didn’t fly low enough to show banded legs. This was at Bagley & 46th. I’ve never seen them before today.
It was probably a Merlin aka Pigeon Hawk. They are about 10 – 13.5″ and feeds mainly on small birds. The NW form is dusky but I have seen some with dark brown and buff striping. American Kestrels are more colorful and about 9-12″. They hang out on phone lines, fences, poles and feed mostly on grasshoppers and small rodents.
My information is from The Audubon Field Guide and Peterson Field Guide- Western Birds, also experience.
I live on the SW Wa. coast but grew up in Wallingford and my mom still lives there. When I was a kid I only noticed Robins, sparrows and other little brown jobs. Now I see Steller’s Jays, Flickers and Bushtits, (tiny chirpy little birds who hang upside down in bushs, very cute) when I visit my mom.
I think the increase in varieties may be due to more natural garden plants and less use of herbicide and pesticides.
Birding is a very fun hobby. All you need to get started is an inexpensive field guide and awareness.
I forgot to mention that Kestrels are also called “sparrow hawks”.
Good birding to you all!
Too far from the water for an osprey? colors sound right.
I think I’ve seen the Merlin only once in our neighborhood (46th St. near the QFC).
Much more common are the Coopers hawks (or maybe, on occasion, Sharp-shinned hawks, which are tough to differentiate from Coopers hawks except by size.)
I’ve also seen young red-tailed hawks chase pigeons into our neighbors hedge. Unfortunately, they rarely seem to get one. (Which is a pity, as I’d like to see more raptors — and less pigeons — on our street.)
PS Though I hope they leave the chickens alone. (Well, except for Foghorn Leghorn.)
“That’s what I’ve been – I say, that’s what I’ve been telling you, boy! I am a chicken!”
This is fun, but baffling. The 3 I saw weren’t ospreys, looked too big to be kestrels, merlins / pigeon hawks (and the descriptions & markings & vocalizations in the Audubon FG to N. American Birds don’t quite line up). They weren’t redtail hawks — didn’t have the scream and weren’t large enough (and I recognize a good redtail when I see one). The closest I’ve found in the book is a Swainson’s hawk… but nothing I’m finding looks right. Selective memory?
Patty, thanks for all the info. There are still lots of robins, sparrows, and other little brown jobs (esp. chickadees) in my shoulder of Wallingford, with a very rare Steller’s jay. Also lots of house finches — my favorite birdsong — and hummingbirds.
It might be a Merlin, but is probably more likely to be a Sharp-shinned hawk — super-common in our urban environment. (Particularly a juvenile, which do seem to like to hang out in our back yards, being kind of stupid as most baby birds are.) Merlins do live in Seattle but are less likely to hang out in our neighborhood.
The cats, chickens and small dogs are ok, but you can be assured that your backyard birds will evaporate in a second if a raptor shows up. In fact, you might notice the raptor’s presence by the dead silence in your back yard.
Around here the crows put up quite a ruckus when a raptor shows up. Even a merlin which is a bit smaller than the crows. They also vocally harrass the raccoons. It’s a jungle out there!
If anyone is interested in doing a bit of “citizen science” the Cornell Lab of Ornithology has Project Feeder Watch, Nest Watch, Pigeon Watch and others. Go to http://www.birds.cornell.edu/netcommunity/page.aspx?pid=1664 for more info.
It seems like every time a bird-related post goes up, there’s a ton of interest. Would it be useful / interesting to create a “Wallingford Life List” here, where we could jointly build a list of all the birds that have been sited in Wallingford? Keep the list somewhere up there with the other resources, and include links to pictures as an aid to to the less bird savvy.
I’m not a birder myself, but I’m pretty sure I could figure out some solution from the tech side that we could collaborate on it. But first, would you birders be interested in helping?