Ice, the Hawk and Chickens!

Last night we had our first hard freeze. The pond was covered with a light sheet of ice this morning.

As you can see the pond looks terrible and is very low. That pipe shows the height of the pond when full. Oak leaves have nearly covered the surface of the pond. The leaves are nearly done falling and hopefully a good rain will sink the leaves. I can not recall seeing so many leaves on the pond.

 My last post I introduced you to our three roosters. Here are the remainder of the flock, the two hens. Above is Light Bulb, she is apparently a rock mix as you can see feathers on her legs. Below is Penquin we have no clue what type of chicken she is? Both of the hens were bought at a feed store in Wilmington by Meg's daughter and she named them.  As you might have guessed the chickens were not sexed at the time of purchase, three roosters were not intended. Neither has laid any eggs yet and they are around 6 months old.

OK, now to the hawk. This morning I let the chickens out, no problems. Came inside and made coffee and sat on the bed with Meg. Meg saw a Red-tailed Hawk perched on the bottle tree right behind the chicken yard, the chickens were out and clueless about the hawk. I attempted to get a photo, but just turning the lock handle to the back door scared away the hawk. We now have a 6 foot fence around the chickens. It seems the 4 foot fence was not enough for Stripe the rooster who wanted to help me water one of the cold frames on Friday.

And now even with the 6 foot fence two of the roosters jumped it because Chip the rooster was chasing them. Not sure what we need to do to keep them inside and safe.

Red-tailed Hawks diet is rodents and rabbits mostly. I know these hawks can take a full grown chicken. Hoping there are too many other meals out there to keep the hawk busy. We have plenty of hawks around here and two other neighbors have chickens as well.

Camellias still blooming in the garden is 'Moon Festival' above. These huge flowers are just stunning. And below is 'Leslie Ann' with these 2 inch slightly pink flowers, only 4 flowers this year, it's second year in the garden.

Red-shouldered Hawk dines at our pond

On Thursday while recovering from being sick, I managed to get these photos. These photos were taken from inside so the glass quality is reduced a great deal. If you did not already know I use a 400mm f 5.6 "toy" lens. I read it was called a toy lens because a real lens would be a  400mm f2.8 lens and they cost around $8000 and are very heavy. My lens is a toy because it cost just over $1000 and it is light enough to carry around without a Sherpa or a tripod, yet it produces some really sharp images.

I've been seeing this Red-shouldered Hawk perched on the willows over the pond, usually if I move it flies away instantly. This day it had its prey locked in. Our feeders were still buzzing and there were two squirrels on the porch out in the open. Do the birds and squirrels know something we don't or just oblivious to this hawk.

The Red-shouldered Hawks diet consists of small mammals like voles, mice and chipmunks. They also eat amphibians and reptiles. They will eat birds at feeders, I think they can not chase birds as well as the Sharp-shinned or Coopers Hawks can.  Our cat does pretty well getting voles and mice, and I don't think we have chipmunks. The pond is full of frogs and painted turtles, so to a hawk like this it is a diner.

The hawk grabbed something.

Looks like a small frog to me, a quick snack for a large hawk like this one. We have been known to get Broad-winged Hawks here, they live on frogs practically. It a month the pond will be deafening with Spring Peepers and Upland Chorus Frogs calling by the thousands it sounds like.

I've got things to do, thanks for the snack!

Hawks and Flycatchers from Belize!!

 

This hawk stumped us and after many hours I came to the conclusion it is a juvenile Common Black Hawk, Buteogallus anthracinus. It was huge, at first we thought it was the rare Solitary Eagle. I took many photos as it was very cooperative, much more than the dim morning light was.

This guy I almost got in trouble with Roger as I used wordsI should not have said in getting him to stop the car in time. This White Hawk, Leucopternis albicollis landed next to the car and I got a few photos out the window before it flew off. I would have loved to see it soaring, maybe the next trip.

We saw this guy soaring like our Northern Harrior and found out it was a Snail Kite, Rostrhamus sociabilis! Really enjoyed watching it fly but it was too far away to get a decent in flight photo.

Some birds are easier to ID, like this Vermilion Flycatcher, Pyrocephalus rubinus I have seen this one in the US in Texas where it is common and in North Carolina where it shows up every 5 years or so.

This  Fork-tailed Flycatcher, Tyrannus savana was an easy ID too. Never seen such cool tails on a bird before!

 

Not sure if this is an Tropical Kingbird, Tyrannus melancholicus or the Couch's Kingbird, Tyrannus couchii. They both look alike and the only way to tell them apart is by the calls. We saw lots of these and never heard any calls, nor did we know the calls anyway.

The garden here is still covered in snow and it is raining now. maybe we'll get the peas planted soon. Last year the peas were coming up by now!

Stay tuned for some butterflies from Belize in the future.