[Birdtalk] A new visitor today

[John Morgan]

Proving that watching your feeders from time to time can pay off, I got a brief but very close (3' feet away) glimpse of a Yellow Rumped Warbler at my feeders today.

When it's "nuthin' but Finches, Doves and Starlings" out here, rare or unusual guests are treated with high regard!

While I'm at it here....oh, and by the way, Merry Christmas to all!....let me add a little bit about a hawk or falcon sighting recently. This is one of those sightings where what it was doesn't matter, OK? It was too far away to ID, other than by guesswork.

One recent evening just after sundown, I walked out on the back deck to enjoy the evening. Out across the golf course and in the field neighboring 90th South at about 2500 West, there's a bit of open space. On this particular evening, my eye caught 2 birds that were obvious hawks or falcons (you decide after I tell the rest of the story). Distance being deceiving as it is, size is difficult to say. I believe they were too large to be American Kestrels, but I could be wrong. Their method of landing approach and "sticking" their landing on top of the power pole WAS very Kestrel-like, but their size looked too large. Having seen a lone Peregrine Falcon out in this same vicinity about a month ago, one cannot rule out these being Peregrines. That would be my guess.

Anyway....long story short....these two birds seemed to be doing some "exhibition" or "thrill" flying. One would leave the perch and fly amazingly fast out in a sort of circuit with a few shallow ups and downs, then return to the perch. The other followed shortly after and returned to a different perch/pole. I observed this pattern just once, but what caught my attention was the amazing speed. This was not the "flappy" wingbeats of a Cooper's Hawk, but very quick, shallow wingbeats from which these two seemed to gain amazing speed energy. The speed would have been on par with a Mourning Dove flying at full speed, but it seemed more effortless.

So, for what it's worth, I pass this along only because it was amazing and delightful to watch. It's my opinion that simply by watching our backyards, things happen that are worth watching! My own backyard is pretty darned boring most of the time, but a few casual investments in backyard awareness have paid off many times for me.

John
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