Thanks for your account, Sandy!
The other day I too saw a Sharp-shinned Hawk chasing House Sparrows and other birds at the Newman Golf Course. The hawk blazed in to the feeder by the private residence along the inlet, scattering the songbirds, and perched in a bush for a couple of minutes, heedless of my presence just five meters away. It was a first-winter bird, with a yellow orbital ring and fine rufous feather edges on the back and wings. The hawk took off again after a House Sparrow, with both birds threading themselves through impossibly narrow gaps in the shrubs, in and out and in and out again within one charged split-second. I followed the Sharp-shinned Hawk eventually to a small bare tree along the boatyard’s parking lot. Again the hawk tolerated my close approach, ultimately to the spot right below it. This bird seemed thoroughly accustomed to people. Other recent highlights: * On Friday, from Route 13 descending from Cayuga Heights, a carload of kids and I saw the Redhead flock arrayed on the lake in a neat half-circle with a stub at the center of the convex side of the arc. It was as if the lake surface were a canvas for the giant oarlock logo of some rowing group. * Yesterday I returned to the golf course with my wife Miyoko Chu. We didn’t see the hawk, but did see a southbound Great Blue Heron overhead. We also saw the Redhead flock rising from the red lighthouse area, and pulling into two like a mitosing amoeba. (We could not see any owl at last year’s nest.) * Today Miyoko joined me again, this time at the Newman Arboretum. Amid the laden crabapple trees on the slope, we sat among dozens of American Robins and Cedar Waxwings, all so tame and/or intently voracious that they too allowed us to walk right up to them. A light-morph Rough-legged Hawk crossed very high to our north as we were leaving. Mark Chao *From:* [email protected] [mailto: [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Sandy Wold *Sent:* Sunday, January 31, 2016 6:24 PM *To:* Upstate NY Birding digest *Subject:* [cayugabirds-l] Hold on to your hats! Agressive Sharp-shinned at Newman Golf Course? I just had an interesting experience. It was dusk, about 5:30pm, and I was sprinting home on my bike from Stewart Park with a friend passing by the Golf Course where I was dive-bombed by a falcon-shaped bird. It was quite thrilling as I felt it come behind me and swoop over my off-white knit hat! Was it checking out my fibers???? Seconds before, three sparrow-sized birds swooped close in front of me from my left and over my right shoulder (I was pedaling fast at the time). As the sparrow-sized birds passed on, I heard Mourning Doves dashing all around. It was too dusky to identify anything other than the doves who were all around and scuffling with each other for who was going to get which tree. I could hear their wing beats and see silhouettes: We followed the predator bird into a tall dense evergreen and waited. The person with me, riding behind me, said she saw the predator bird scuffle with a smaller bird as it approached my head with the smaller bird deferring and moving to my left. After a few minutes at the evergreen, the predator flew out toward me (again) and behind and circled me heading away from me and toward a deciduous tree about 100 yards away where I was able to see a clear silhouette. Tail pointed straight downward when perched, almost as long as its torso, had a straight edge on its perching tail, definitely saw a hawk-like bill shape. When it flew, I saw falcon-points. The person with me saw white on the underside...It flew from this last tree to a bramble clump in the middle of the golf course. We walked all around the dense bramble and could not find the bird. Any ideas? My first choice is Sharp-shinned Hawk for tail length and silhouette, but perigrine for flight shape. -- *Cayugabirds-L List Info:* Welcome and Basics <http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME> Rules and Information <http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES> Subscribe, Configuration and Leave <http://www.northeastbirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm> *Archives:* The Mail Archive <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html> Surfbirds <http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds> BirdingOnThe.Net <http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html> *Please submit your observations to eBird <http://ebird.org/content/ebird/>!* -- -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
