Diners in Danger of Becoming Breakfast

A birdfeeder doesn't just bring birds - as I learned a few years ago in Arlington, it brings the birds that feed on the birds.

As I was getting ready for work the other morning, I noticed a hawk sitting on my patio fence and was able to take a quick Flipcam clip before it flew off. Nice to work at the National Wildlife Federation where I can ask a certified wildlife biologist for help identifying it. Here's what Doug Inkley had to say:

This is definitely either a sharp-shinned or Cooper’s hawk. They look very similar and hard to tell apart. The Cooper’s hawk is larger and much less common.

Banded tail, gray back, reddish eye and probably looking for songbirds around a bird feeder. My money is on a sharpy.

Mordecai Lays the Smackdown at Upton Hill Regional Park

Every week or two I round up as many friends as I can and head to Upton Hill Regional Park in Arlington for a round of pre-bar mini-golf. Most of us are no good and the only real competition is usually to see who can get off the best trash talk.

But we got an unexpected show in the sky on Saturday night. As we were finishing up the 4th hole, a red-tailed hawk burst out of the tree above the 12th hole (at center of this photo), swooped straight for a patch of mulch on the embankment above the 9th hole, and plowed right into it. The hawk took a second to gather itself, then flew back up towards the tree -- with a mouse danging in its talons. (By the time I snapped this cell phone camera pic, the hawk was already back in the tree.)

After that, mini-golf seemed pretty mundane by comparison, even if my friend Brendan did drain four holes-in-one on the back nine.

It wasn't the only cool bird sighting of the night. By the time we were finished, the sun had set, and people in the parking lot were pointing up at the sky. Something was darting around above the lights snacking on the gathered bugs. It almost looked like a bat, but was too big and its wings were too thick. (Once again, my cell phone camera came up short - it was too dark and the bird was too quick.)

A man was standing next to his car with binoculars looking up at it, so I walked over and asked him what it was. He told me it was a night hawk -- a whippoorwill. Most of us have heard the name and maybe even heard its call, but I don't know that I'd ever seen one myself. The birdwatcher told me that whippoorwills gather above Upton Hill's lights each night, sometimes as many as a dozen of them.

That's what I love about Arlington -- I'm just a few Metro stops away from DC or a short walk from Clarendon's nightlife, yet there are also incredible nature opportunities like this. Pretty cool.

Another Mordecai Sighting

I was walking down Wilson Boulevard in the Virginia Square area Sunday afternoon and made another Cooper's Hawk sighting, the bird that recently scared the hell out of the animals in my backyard. I pulled out my cell phone camera, but unfortunately the hawk was circling very high overhead and the camera quality is lousy, so all I got was this:
From an Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment friend who's a major birder:

This seems to be a good winter for Cooper's Hawks. In your neighborhood, keep an eye out for (endangered) Peregrines. We lived for a year in Randolph towers on the 20th floor and would often see one when we were out on the balcony. I suspect they nest on some high-rise there in Ballston.

Any cool hawk sightings to report?

There's a New Sheriff in My Backyard

I was tossing some old bread out into my backyard in Ballston today (my first-floor apartment has a back door) to my usual customers of sparrows, starlings, and squirrels. As soon as the weather turns colder business picks up considerably, so this afternoon dozens of them had gathered.

All of the sudden every single one of them scattered. Not just their usual, "A person's coming, let's hang back for a minute, but I still got dibs on that piece of crust." They took off like their lives depended on it.

Then I saw why. The tall bushes across the parking lot shook and out flew a hawk.

We'll call him Mordecai. He landed on a utility line above the parking lot. Not particularly large for a hawk, but he still had a wingspan of close to four feet. If Mordecai had been in a better and less noisy position, I'm sure any of the birds or squirrels that had been in my backyard would've made a tasty dinner.

I've spotted several hawks in Arlington, usually in Rosslyn where the local parks make a good habitat, the tall buildings provide places to perch, and the urban setting serves up plenty of prey. My closest encounter came on Roosevelt Island during the 2006 ACE Hike & Happy Hour, though it wasn't as close as the meetup vividly described by Herb of DC.

I'd like to think the sighting isn't completely unrelated to Arlington's ongoing environmental efforts and its certification as a Community Wildlife Habitat, wouldn't you?