pond in frederick, md

[CountryEscape]

Cute description, Colleen, loved that. LOL
Well, I just didn't wait long enough for the goldfish bog to fill back up, as it's running tonight, along with every pump in my ponds. Woohoo, love this warmer weather! Hope you get some of that this weekend, east coast ponders!

 

[addy1]

I was being a total bumm today. Doing my fav thing watching out our windows. See the blur of a hawk come in towards the feeders, it misses like normal. Lands on the ground near the feeder, but holds its foot up like it hurt. So I do my next fav thing, binocs, cameras, chair and watch.
It does go over near the lotus tank, a walk hop.

Then flies up onto one of the fence posts I have up for the anti heron net, sits there waiting for birds to come back or just goofing off.
It is a hoot, the squirrels run past hawk, two to three at a time, the hawk just watches them. Size comparison, the squirrels are just about the same size as the hawk.

That clump of netting I had tossed there before we left for florida, it froze into the pond, looks horrible, but was my quick anti heron protection for the walk out area. Waiting for a defrost so I can get it out of the water.

 

[callingcolleen1]

Looks like there is an orange ball in the pond too, and I see you still got ice on pond. I got thin ice again too, never plugged Heater in for just a little cold, might have too soon, we may have a small dip in temperatures over the next two days.

Waiting for hubby to wake up from afternoon snooze, so I turned the TV off, the sudden quiet should wake him up!

 

[addy1]

lol it was sort of floating around the pond, didn't work to keep it open though. The ice on that pond did reach 6 inches maybe a little more, then melted, then refroze. I have not looked to see how thick, it is warming again. I see the fish swimming around below the ice. (rosey reds one or two goldfish)
The big pond iced over again, right now totally covering, but a lot thinner than it was. It too will melt next week.

 

[sissy]

bacteria dies and smells bad and I clean my lava rock and soak it in peroxide and clean everything and then I some times add liquid bacteria to help it get started again .There is a gel kind I get that is good also .I think the gel is better .I sometimes don't add anything .I just get it started early enough .

 

[CountryEscape]

Addy, in the last pic of the hawk, what's hanging below the hawk? Looks like a raccoon tail or something. Did the hawk maybe catch a chipmunk? I looked at that pic several times, still have not figured out that fuzzy looking tail.

 

[addy1]

lol CE they have a lot of feathers on their feet. In fact you can't even see its feet. The hawks tail is behind the post.

 

[j.w]

Looks like Hawkeye goes w/o lunch today :ugh:

 

[Mmathis]

Addy, what kind of hawk is it? Until you mentioned the tail [and the size] I was thinking red-tailed hawk, but ours have short tails. I had a small hawk in the backyard about 2 weeks ago. It was sitting in a tree, overlooking the windows where I have bird feeders [which have been empty since the weather has warmed up], and I know it was shopping. Best ID I could come up with was a Cooper's Hawk. It was much smaller than the red-tailed, and had a tail that was as long as its body, and banded [I took in every detail I could during the short time it was there]. I had never seen a Coopers before, but that came closest to any description I could find. Pretty bird. Too bad it missed lunch that day [NOT].

 

[CountryEscape]

TM, look up a Sharp Shinned Hawk. Funny, I've never seen one before, but in the last couple of years, I've seen them everywhere around here. They are larger than the Cooper's (Chicken) Hawks, but the most distinct feature I noticed was that the base of the tail has a white stripe going side to side. It hunts the fields around where I live. And, Addy has had one, my brother in Seattle posted one on his FB .... seems like everyone is noticing this "new" hawk! Cooper's Hawks are a little smaller than the Sharp Shinned, I think. I love hawks! They are so neat to watch hunt. Usually along the interstates, I see all the Red Tail Hawks sitting on the posts or electric poles.

 

[Mmathis]

TM, look up a Sharp Shinned Hawk. Funny, I've never seen one before, but in the last couple of years, I've seen them everywhere around here. They are larger than the Cooper's (Chicken) Hawks, but the most distinct feature I noticed was that the base of the tail has a white stripe going side to side. It hunts the fields around where I live. And, Addy has had one, my brother in Seattle posted one on his FB .... seems like everyone is noticing this "new" hawk! Cooper's Hawks are a little smaller than the Sharp Shinned, I think. I love hawks! They are so neat to watch hunt. Usually along the interstates, I see all the Red Tail Hawks sitting on the posts or electric poles.

Well, when I first looked it up, the Sharp Shinned [what a name] was what I thought, until I looked at the sometimes-confused-with section, which was the Cooper's. So actually, could go either way, there, especially if I was seeing a juvenile. But one characteristic listed was the body shape. Said the SS is sort of stocky & top-heavy, where the Cooper's isn't. And my first impression was that this resembled a very large Mockingbird! Wish I'd had the camera/phone with me, but as it was I stood frozen while I watched it -- pulling out the phone would have spooked it. I really like all raptors & owls, too!

 

[addy1]

I go back and forth on sharp shinned or a coopers hawk.
I need to find a site with some good sound tapings of them. These guys cry constantly while flying, A very distinctive cry. They are a lot smaller than red tails.
I was watching two of them do the spring dance recently, getting ready for nesting time.

 

[CountryEscape]

"That’s the Sharp-shinned Hawk, the smallest hawk in North America and a daring, acrobatic flier. These raptors have distinctive proportions: long legs, short wings, and very long tails, which they use for navigating their deep-woods homes at top speed in pursuit of songbirds and mice." I thought they were larger than the Cooper/chicken hawks, but according to this, they are smaller. So, now I'm wondering what I saw, too!
Here's a link with the sound if you scroll down. http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Sharp-shinned_Hawk/sounds
According to the pics if you compare Sharp Shinned to Coopers, it seems like the SS is gray, and the Coopers is brown. The ones I'm seeing are definitely gray, which is very different than I'd ever seen in this area. I think the SS are making a huge come back, seems like they are being spotted all across the nation!

 

[callingcolleen1]

We had some really big raptor yesterday down by the river, it was being chased by a large group of maggpies. The thing was so big I was afraid for my only Poppy! It was pretty darn big with a large wing span, magpies followed the large raptor to a group of trees and they all sat quite close to the raptor, squacking non stop at the raptor. I am not sure what kind of raptor it was, all I can tell you is it was very large. We get all kinds of birds of prey down by the river, even bald eagles on occasion. Those magpies are bad, they bug my puppies senseless and the dogs try in vain to chase the maggpies out of the back yard. They try to steal the puppies bones and one even pulled on Poppys tail once, and when Poppy got up to chase it, another Magpie took pecks at Poppys bone. Now the puppies hate magpies!

 

[addy1]

The crows and magpies chase the poor things here. They will harass them unmercifully.