Nature Study...Up Close and Personal

UPDATE:  Since posting this yesterday, my son Ryan suggested that our "quick identification" may have been a bit too quick!  We have been round and round as to whether our raptor was a Cooper's Hawk or a Sharp-shinned Hawk...although the current opinion is leaning toward the Cooper's Hawk.  Opinions?

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Bekah and I had just settled on the loveseat in the kitchen to read the next chapter of The Year of Miss Agnes, when I heard a thumping noise on the back porch.  I looked over toward the back door and saw this visitor...IN the porch!  (The porch door is kept ajar so that our very timid outdoor cat can get to his food and water and eat in peace...and our visitor must have flown through the open door.)

We quickly identified him as a red-tailed hawk and Bekah ran to get the camera.  (That's my girl!)  She snapped a few pictures, but our hawk friend seemed distressed, so we ended his photo shoot, closed Pinky in the bathroom (she was watching him from the back door like a hawk...pun intended), and the broom and I encouraged him to move in the direction of the slightly open door.  (I did not touch our friend with the broom; I merely used it as an extension of myself to shoo him away.  I was a bit cautious of those talons...and that hooked beak, for that matter!)

Nothing like a little nature study right at your back door! 

*Click this link for interesting facts about the red-tailed hawk, including some audio of his call!