Even Hawks in the Trees Do It.....

Female Cooper's Hawk 

Yesterday when I stopped to snack between classes, I heard some unfamiliar bird sounds coming from the trees on either side of my car. Their vocalizations reminded me of sqeaky-toys. Bird number one was about the size of a Jay, with perky, Jay-type body language, and light coloration, but it had a hawk face and it was enthusiastically eating a bird. The deceased meal bird had a finchy tail, possibly a goldfinch. Turns out, the bird on the opposite side of the street, was also in a tree eating, however this bird had completely different coloration -- warm buffy breast, dark top of head and wings.  Both birds had fluffy white feathers on either side of their tails. When number one bird flew with meal to eat in the same tree as the second bird, I noticed a significant size (as well as coloration) difference between them, and made the assumption that the first bird was a baby and the second bird was the mom. They were speaking the same bird language.

After "baby" finished his meal, he abruptly flew over to "mom" and briefly mounted her, flapping his wings. How rude! She was not even finished with her meal! And, it was starting to look less like a mom and baby situation. More like -- two birds met at a bar, or birdfeeder. This frisky young upstart flew back across the street and hopped around from branch to branch with powerful legs, poking and pulling on twigs. He looked quite clownish and reminded me of a parrot playing around. After the female finished her meal, she flew to the tree next to "frisky's" and sat preening. At this point, I was experimenting with how close I could get to take a photo. Alas, I was shooting into the rainy sky, and could only get profiles, instead of portraits. While shooting, "frisky" decided to make another attempt to mate, and I caught his approach. It was over so quickly, I don't think he accomplished the deed.

Male hawk landing on female.

So, who were these interesting, if smallish hawks? Cooper's Hawks and Sharp-Shinned Hawks can look identical (the latter are smaller at twelve inches vs. seventeen inches for the Cooper's), and they both raid bird feeders (for birds) for a living. According to my book (Birds of the Willamette Valley Region, Nehls, Aversa, Opperman), the male Cooper's is only slightly larger than the female Sharp-Shinned, so the females account for the difference in size between the two types of hawks. Sharp-Shinned hawks have skinny legs, while Cooper's have big, powerful legs, and "frisky" had remarkable legs. Also, their vocalizations matched the Cooper's Hawks on the Cornell Ornithology site. The last interesting tidbit from my book is that Cooper's can breed in the first year, while still in juvenile plumage. "Frisky" looks like he's still trying to figure things out.

CoHo Orbits the Science March in Corvallis

On Science March Saturday, we rocked a work party, ate pizza at the common house, and followed up with a trip to the Corvallis Science March.  Corvallis has a population of roughly 55,000, and somewhere between 4-5,000 folks showed up for the Science March.  This made it difficult to locate the many non-CoHo friends we expected to see at the march.  Herding CoHoots to get a photo was like trying to locate electrons – we know they are out there somewhere.  So, here are a few CoHoots assembled in one spot, while the others were roaming about making connections with friends.  Juva and Richard are modeling their brain hats, while Janelle sports a lovely leopard print pussy hat.

Even Snails on the Path Do It!

On first glance, this cluster of snails on the path appeared to be having a meeting, convention, or a very quiet party.  However, on closer look, they were connected in pairs, making it more of a snail orgy.  My duty as a gardener probably should have been to destroy the enemy of plants, but some how... I just couldn't.  It was the wonder-factor.  The wonder-factor also encouraged me to look up snail mating behavior.  Many folks are aware that most snails are hermaphrodites, but did you know about the "love dart?"   To see what a "love dart" is and learn more about it, check out this article (not for the squeamish).  What the article neglects to say is that the snails below could have darted each other and be fertilizing each other's eggs.  In any case, be looking for clusters of beautiful, translucent, snow white pearls in the soil and take action, if the wonder doesn't stop you in your tracks.

It's Turkey Vulture Mating Season at Coho!

On April 1st, while working outside and talking with a friend, I noticed two turkey vultures, wings outstretched and sunning themselves with their backs to us.  They were perched atop a snag by the garages.  As there were two, Deb wondered if they might be a pair.  I expounded on how generally unfriendly they often seem to each other, even though they frequently roost in groups. I have noticed that if one Turkey vulture sidles up to another one to get cozy, it is often rebuffed with a growl.  I went back to work digging a hole, when some minutes later I was distracted by a sound that reminded me of someone blowing their nose in a rhythmic fashion. It was coming from the top of the snag. I turned to watch turkey vultures mating, the male flapping to keep his balance at that great height. Afterwards they quietly sat next to each other, looking mellow, cozy.  (I love having my preconceptions blown.)  A couple of turkey vultures seem to hang around, lately, and I got this not-so-great photo of them on top of the snag.  I actually thought they did mating and chick rearing on their winter holiday in Mexico or Southern California.  The gestation period is 29 - 40 days.  I hope we get to see some juveniles.

Here is a link to an article in the Neighborhood Naturalist on our local turkey vultures.

And if you ever hear rhythmic nose-blowing from on high, be on the lookout for turkey vulture sex!