Delightful December

This was taken in Peteluma.  I couldn't believe the bird just sat there and let me snap as many pictures as I wanted.  I believe it is a red-tail hawk.  It was such a delightful day out, just like my next two weeks will be.  If it wasn't for yoga, friends, and these outings, I would quit my job which means retire early and volunteer.  Then I could choose which students to work with.  I love my job, but I don't like some students ruining the experience for other students continuously day after day.  I want to teach, not babysit.  Enough said...

Habitat and Diet

• Red-tailed hawks are birds of prey. They hunt rabbits, squirrels, lizards, mice or other rodents (or any small animal). Their sharp vision allows them to spot their targets from the height of trees or telephone poles. Red-tailed hawks prefer to live in open spaces, such as fields, deserts and mountains, where it can be more difficult for prey to hide. The space also allows the aerial hunter to dive down and catch its prey. Hawks, unlike falcons, dive slowly, feet first, with their talons outstretched and ready to grab their meal.
  

Mating

• These birds of prey mate for life. Their typical mating ritual involves dancing together through the air; a dance that ends with a death-defying stunt. The birds lock their talons together and plummet toward the ground in an uncontrolled fall before separating again. Once mated, red-tailed hawks will often hunt as a team. They also parent as a team, taking turns warming eggs and feeding chicks. Red-tail hawks often choose a territory of their own, living in the same nest and hunting in the same fields throughout their lives.
  

Some Fun Facts

• Did you know that red-tailed hawks are one of the few birds of prey that actually "scream?" According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, whenever a bird of prey (of any species) is shown hunting or diving in films, the sound effect that is used is almost always a red-tailed hawk cry. Despite fearsome cry and large size, the biggest of red-tailed hawks rarely weighs more than three pounds. Red-tailed hawks also have an impressive life span, averaging 21 years in the wild. The oldest known red-tailed hawk lived almost 29 years.
  

Read more: http://www.ehow.com/info_8309025_redtail-hawk.html#ixzz2o1nMlXJa

Humming Around

While hanging out at my parents' house this weekend and waiting for my dad to connect with the pharmacist, I spotted a hummingbird also hanging out.  I think he was protecting his territory.  When I first glanced out the door, I thought it was another leaf on the peach tree. I think this is a Allan but not sure.

This little fellow reminds me of my students this year.  Sometimes calm and attentive, other times flighty, unfocused, here, there, and everywhere.

Basic Facts About Hummingbirds

Hummingbirds are small, colorful birds with iridescent feathers. Their name comes from the fact that they flap their wings so fast (about 80 times per second) that they make a humming noise. Hummingbirds can fly right, left, up, down, backwards, and even upside down. They are also able to hover by flapping their wings in a figure-8 pattern. They have a specialized long and tapered bill that is used to obtain nectar from the center of long, tubular flowers. The hummingbird’s feet are used for perching only, and are not used for hopping or walking.

 

Diet

Hummingbirds primarily eat flower nectar, tree sap, insects and pollen.
The hummingbird’s fast breathing rate, fast heartbeat and high body temperature require that they eat often. They also require an enormous amount of food each day. Hummingbirds have a long tongue which they use to lick their food at a rate of up to 13 licks per second.

Population

It is difficult to estimate population numbers since there are many different species spanning a large geographic area.

Range

Hummingbirds are found only in the Western Hemisphere, from southeastern Alaska to southern Chile, although most live in the tropics. There are 320 species of hummingbirds, 12 of which summer in North America and winter in tropical areas.

Behavior

Like other birds, hummingbirds communicate via visual displays. Hummingbirds are very territorial and have been observed chasing each other and even larger birds such as hawks away from their territories.

In the Merry Month of May

We'll be celebrating Colonial Days next week at school and one of the activities will be using a quill to write a fancy message.  The quills will be made from turkey feathers compliments of Loma Vista turkeys.  I think this fellow contributed quite a few feathers.  So a little information about turkeys is now in order...

How the Turkey Got Its Name

There are a number of explanations for the origin of the name of Thanksgiving's favorite dinner guest. Some believe Christopher Columbus thought that the land he discovered was connected to India, and believed the bird he discovered (the turkey) was a type of peacock. He therefore called it 'tuka,' which is 'peacock' in Tamil, an Indian language.
Though the turkey is actually a type of pheasant, one can't blame the explorer for trying.
The Native American name for turkey is 'firkee'; some say this is how turkeys got their name. Simple facts, however, sometimes produce the best answers—when a turkey is scared, it makes a "turk, turk, turk" noise.

Turkey Facts

• At one time, the turkey and the bald eagle were each considered as the national symbol of America. Benjamin Franklin was one of those who argued passionately on behalf of the turkey. Franklin felt the turkey, although "vain and silly", was a better choice than the bald eagle, whom he felt was "a coward".
• According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, more than 45 million turkeys are cooked and eaten in the U.S. at Thanksgiving—that's one sixth of all turkeys sold in the U.S. each year. American per capita consumption of turkeys has soared from 8.3 pounds in 1975 to 18.5 pounds in 1997. Ten years later, the number dropped in 2007 to 13.8 pounds.
• In 2010, more than 242 million turkeys were raised with an average liveweight per bird of 28 pounds with nearly 6 billion pounds of turkey processed. By contrast, in 1970, only 105 million birds were raised with an average liveweight of 17 pounds and 1.5 billion pounds processed. The turkeys produced in 2009 together weighed 7.1 billion pounds and were valued at $3.6 billion.
• In 2002, retail sales of turkey was approximately $3.6 billion. Forecasts for 2010 expect sales to reach $4.18 billion.
• Age is a determining factor in taste. Old, large males are preferable to young toms (males) as tom meat is stringy. The opposite is true for females: old hens are tougher birds.
• A turkey under sixteen weeks of age is called a fryer, while a young roaster is five to seven months old.
• Turkeys are the only breed of poultry native to the Western Hemisphere.
• Turkeys have great hearing, but no external ears. They can also see in color, and have excellent visual acuity and a wide field of vision (about 270 degrees), which makes sneaking up on them difficult. However, turkeys have a poor sense of smell (what's cooking?), but an excellent sense of taste.
• Domesticated turkeys cannot fly. Wild turkeys, however, can fly for short distances at speeds up to 55 miles per hour. They can also reach speeds of 25 miles per hour on the ground.
• Turkeys sometimes spend the night in trees.
• Turkeys can have heart attacks: turkeys in fields near the Air Force test areas over which the sound barrier was broken were known to drop dead from the shock of passing jets
• The ballroom dance known as the Turkey Trot was named for the short, jerky steps a turkey makes.

Wow - It's been a year!

I can' t believe I finally got a shot of a hawk.  I see them all the time, but never get the opportunity to pull over and capture the image.  This is a red-shouldered hawk, but I didn't see white stripes on the tail.  I welcome any corrections to set me straight.  It reminds me of me looking out over my students.  Though just like the hawk sometimes doesn't get its prey, students get out of my protective eye, which is what happened this week - actually two students and it happened twice - yikes, not good!  Anyway, I had a wonderful day out in American Canyon at the Flyway Festival.  Here is some information about red-shouldered hawks:

© hawkperson

Whether wheeling over a swamp forest or whistling plaintively from a riverine park, a Red-shouldered Hawk is typically a sign of tall woods and water. It’s one of our most distinctively marked common hawks, with barred reddish-peachy underparts and a strongly banded tail. In flight, translucent crescents near the wingtips help to identify the species at a distance. These forest hawks hunt prey ranging from mice to frogs and snakes.

Keys to identification Help

Hawks

Typical Voice

• Size & Shape

  Red-shouldered Hawks are medium-sized, with broad, rounded wings and medium-length tails that they fan out when soaring. In flight, they often glide or soar with their wingtips pushed slightly forward, imparting a distinctive, “reaching” posture.
  

• Color Pattern

  Adults are colorful hawks with dark-and-white checkered wings and warm reddish barring on the breast. The tail is black with narrow white bands. Immatures are brown above and white below streaked with brown. All ages show narrow, pale crescents near the wingtips in flight.
  

• Behavior

  Red-shouldered Hawks soar over forests or perch on tree branches or utility wires. Its rising, whistled kee-rah is a distinctive sound of the forest. They hunt small mammals, amphibians, and reptiles either from perches or while flying.
  

• Habitat

  Look for Red-shouldered Hawks in deciduous woodlands, often near rivers and swamps. They build stick nests in a main crotch of a large tree. During migration, Red-shouldered Hawks often move high overhead along ridges or along the coast.