Astrid's Birds ®

Home Up Don Haas Kay and Bob Keenan Bob Kessel ® Don Mayszak Loretta Stenbeck John/Nancy Valesano Jim Brooks ® Astrid's Birds ® John Schweickert ® Sharon Badenoch Gene Beck Leah Roush Krevitz In the Rough Riverview Park, 1953 Bob Hughett Alan Berry

Astrid's Quilts

Hidden Owls
Below find an adult horned owl and chick hidden in tree

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RED-SHOULDERED HAWKS


We spent Memorial Day, 2005, at a Red-Shouldered, Hawk nest. This baby had tried to fly and got to the bottom of the next tree. We watched all day as he slowly figured how to go to the outside, jump go out another branch and jump again.  he made it near the top, and, just as we were leaving, he flew back to the nest tree. Since the parents had ignored him in this tree, it was a matter of life or death. Earl got so excited cheering him on that he forgot to take the picture. -- Astrid


Parent Red-Shouldered Hawk bringing food for chicks.

 


Red-Shouldered Hawk chick flapping its wings.

 


Mama just passes over, dropping the food. The other two babies dive in from right and left to get the food first.

Purple Gallinule

® 04/25/05 -- Astrid sends this beautiful photograph of a Purple Gallinule.  This bird, however, was 700-800 miles out of his range ... another male who wouldn't ask directions when he got lost. He is living in a farmer's yard in Homer, Il. (Husband, Paul took the photo.

Humming Bird

® 12/14/04 -- Astrid just sent me a beautiful photograph of a humming bird. Earl Berkson, Astrid's husband, shot this photo in Arizona with his Canon 1D, with a Canon 100-400 zoom lens, 400 auto exposure (fairly open, it was not so bright).

 

Cooper's Hawks (Accipiter Cooperii)
Also known as Chicken Hawks.

We have five of these guys in our trees and on our roof, chasing everything that moves, for all but the top dog, however; the parents are still the primary source of food


 

Here is the adult male in 2001. He thought we were hiding a rival. We ended up covering the windows with shower curtain all that summer, because he got so obsessed with his reflection that we were afraid he would neglect the babies. That summer they fledged five babies. (see the rounded tail with clear white band, an identifying mark for the Cooper's Hawk)


 

He is the runt, and baths in this old garbage can lid instead of the drip, but he claims it as his own.


 

This was their nest over the street


 

Young Cooper's checking out the camera man.

Credits: Earl Berkson, Astrid's husband, took the photographs shown on this page.

Jim's note: Illinois' farmers referred colloquially to the Cooper's Hawk as a "Chicken Hawk," because it preyed on chickens ... usually the smaller pullets. It is pleasure for this Sierra Club member to see REAL chicken hawks and humans living in harmony in such close proximity.