The Artistic Cooper's Hawk...

…for me, fuzzy photos = artistic photos, so this batch is as artsy as they come…but I love them! I took these through the screen of the kitchen window in glowing late afternoon light. I had to climb up on the counter, sitting half in the sink to capture them because he was almost out of view. The strange angle of the lens against the screen put a soft halo around the bird…and the low-angled sunlight lit the grasses in the background with warm golden tones.

This is a handsome bird. When I look at his eyes and beak I see beauty, but the little birds in my yard don't see that. Instinctually, they see danger. So starts the love/hate relationship with hawks and other birds of prey.

I'm a fluffy bird. I like to fluff. Fluffing is my favorite...

I like how the camera captured his eye in this photo...just a sliver.

I am a formidable bird. Look into my eyes and tell me I don't make you tremble...

I have no idea what he's looking at here. He obviously dropped in to pick up some some fast food at our feeders, but all of our little McTitmice, McJuncos and McChickadees were long gone.

I spent about an hour and a half last night looking through my books of nature poetry trying to find a poem about a hawk. Seems poets shy away from the power of the bird or the fact that he kills for a living. I found a few, but nothing struck me with the beauty I see in this bird. Not even Emily Dickinson or Thoreau came through for me. Walt Whitman has a nice poem about a hawk, but the line...

“The spotted hawk swoops by and accuses me, he complains of my gab and my loitering.”

…didn’t capture what I felt when I saw him. I think Emerson's essay on nature and beauty probably comes a little closer:

A NOBLER WANT OF man is served by nature, namely, the love of Beauty.

The ancient Greeks called the world Cosmos, beauty. Such is the constitution of all things, or such the plastic power of the human eye, that the primary forms, as the sky, the mountain, the tree, the animal, give us a delight in and for themselves; a pleasure arising from outline, color, motion, and grouping.

(from "Essays and Poems by Ralph Waldo Emerson.")

...there is no denying the beauty in his form and eyes, but even though I'm drawn to him, I have to acknowledge his power and his ability to kill the little birds I feed.

....I think I'll forget about that part and remember his job is to pull the sick and slow birds out of the population. Mother Nature has a plan, so I'll admire the fierce glare in his eyes and sleek tilt of his brow...and shoo him away every now and then as I try to get closer with my camera (because I don't think Mother Nature envisioned her Cooper's getting fat at the local fast-food joint!). Good thing our Blue Jays sound the warning and the healthy birds get out fast.

Be sure to visit Bird Photography Weekly for cool birds seen all around the world.

A Kitchenhawk in the plum tree...

...a Kitchenhawk is an accipiter that sits outside my kitchen window. His size is a bit iffy---he's about halfway between the size of an Obvious Sharp-shinned Hawk and an Obvious Cooper's Hawk. A week or so a go, an Obvious Sharp-shinned Hawk (juvenile) landed outside my kitchen window. He was small--really no larger than a Blue Jay. A few days later, the same munchkin landed on the deck, followed about an hour later by an Obvious Cooper's Hawk (juvenile). She was very large! But for the past couple of days, this in between-sized hawk has been visiting the plum tree and hockey net on the kitchen side of the house. My guess is he is a small, male juvenile Cooper's Hawk, but sometimes he seems small enough to be a Sharp-shinned. I do not know enough about hawks to make a decision. His tail feathers seem rounded and uneven, which points towards a Cooper's but.....any experts out there? I'll have more photos of him over the next couple of days.

When I showed this photo to Rick, he sad it was a shame the tree was in the way, but I sometimes like these peeping-through-the-woods shots. You'd never know this fellow was sitting about 10 feet outside my kitchen window. Although the fuzziness has that shooting-through-a-screen feel.

I would hate to be a tiny mouse or bird and be on the receiving end of that stare!!

...that beautiful orange-buff head makes me lean towards a small male Cooper's Hawk.

...another Peeping Tom shot! I love the intense focus that always shows up in a hawk's eye.

Large Milkweed Bugs (Oncopeltus fasciatus)

Saturday I went on a very exciting field trip with the Cincinnati Birding Club to Caesar Creek State Park in Warren County, Ohio. We saw some fabulous birds and the weather was perfect, but while searching for birds, I saw these Large Milkweed bugs...and they were close and immobile, and photographed infinitely better than the Common Loons, Hooded Mergansers....and American Bald Eagles I saw along the way (more on those pretties later)!

Large Milkweed Bugs on a Common Milkweed pod. One adult is at the top (he has wings), two fifth instars are at the bottom (they are nymphs, or immature versions of the Large Milkweed bugs--notice that they don't have usable wings yet.)

Milkweed bugs molt five times (nymphal instars) before they become adults. During these stages, the nymphs look similar to the adults except their color pattern is a little different and they do not have fully developed wings (during the middle instars black wing pads start to form, but they can not use their wings until they are adults--a great way to keep the kids at home and safe until they grow up).

Close-up of a middle instar. You can see the black wing pads. He's definitely not flying anywhere with those things! Eggs hatch in about a week if the temp is 75 degrees F or above. The bug goes through the five molts to become an adult in about a month! The adult then lives for about a month.

Three adult Large Milkweed Bugs and two instars.

At the tip of the Milkweed pod a group of adults are massing together to form a color warning to birds and other predators.

This behavior is thought to amplify the Milkweed bug's ability to broadcast a color warning. Since Milkweed bugs eat milkweed, which is toxic, they do not taste good. A young bird will think twice before downing another orange and black bug the second time it comes across one...and a great big mass of orange and black is a big warning to stay away! This is the same sort of protection Monarch butterflies receive because as caterpillars they too feed on Common Milkweed. Click here for an older post explaining how Pipevine Swallowtail butterflies and Monarch butterflies receive the same protection (and for a look at how beautiful Common Milkweed is as a flower in the summer).

I love how delicate their legs look against the silk of the milkweed seeds.

What do we have here? At first I thought it was a different bug, but if you look closely, you can see it's an adult with abnormally developed wings. For some reason they have shriveled and dried up. Perhaps on his final molt he was not able to pump hemolymph (bug blood) through the veins in his wings to unfurl them. I don't know...

Another view of our adult Milkweed bug's shriveled wings.

You can see how different the Large Milkweed bug looks without wings to cover his body.

For more information on Large Milkweed bugs, click here.

For photos of all the instars of Large Milkweed bugs, click here.

Autumn Leaves

I cannot endure to waste anything

as precious as autumn sunshine by

staying in the house. So I spend

almost all the daylight hours

in the open air.

Nathaniel Hawthorne

I like the way that boy thinks!

...and as an aside.....when I was very young, my cousins Paula, Marianne, Marybeth and I would play a card game with Grandma Rose at her kitchen table. It was called "Authors," and I learned all the classic authors and what they looked like while playing that game. Well......old Nathaniel Hawthorne had incredibly blue eyes, and when that card would come up, Grandma Rose would say, "there's old Blue Eyes again," and we would laugh and laugh. To this day, when I read something written by Nathaniel Hawthorne...."Old Blue Eyes" comes to mind, and I smile. (Do you remember that Paula, Marianne, and Marybeth?)

About the leaves...

I'm taking a watercolor class called "An Imaginary Trip Through Autumn," and Laure Ferlita is my teacher. If you read my blog regularly you probably know Laure from comments. Her blog is Painted Thoughts Blog. If you're thinking about getting into watercolors, or you want to take an online watercolor class, head over to Laure's Imaginary Trips Website. I just started the "Autumn" class, and I'm finishing up the "An Imaginary Trip to Paris" class. She's a great teacher, and I'm learning a lot about painting on site and using watercolors. If you join, maybe we'll be in a class together! I know one of the classes coming up is "An Imaginary Trip to England," and "An Imaginary Trip to the Beach." I'm going to take both of those classes.

Here is the latest from my Paris class. You can see the subject matter is really interesting and fun. This is the Queen's Hamlet at Versailles...

A Northern Flicker munching on Poison Ivy berries...

...continued from the post on the Red-bellied Woodpecker eating greenbrier berries along the Little Miami River.

I love the call of a Northern Flicker, but don’t hear it as often as I would like. Luckily, Sunday, right after I saw the Red-bellied Woodpecker feasting on her store of berries, a Northern Flicker swooped across the trail, landing in a tree on the hillside. He wasn’t in the best location, but I was able to squeeze out a shot or two. He had found Mother Nature’s bounty as well, and was consuming his calories in the form of Poison Ivy berries. Poison Ivy leaves are so gorgeous in the autumn. Bright red wrapped around trees, I always love picking them out as I drive down the streets or walk the trail. I don’t see the little white berries as often, and these would have gone unnoticed too if the Northern Flicker had not pointed them out for me!

It looks like he's been to this stash before. Many of the little white berries have already been plucked from the Poison Ivy vine.

We have the Yellow-shafted variety of Northern Flicker here in Cincinnati. Isn't he the noble gentleman for turning around to flash us those lovely yellow tail feathers! If you look closely, you can even see the yellow shafts under his wings.

Now for the view of the beautiful red crescent on his nape.

Red-bellied Woodpecker eating greenbrier berries along the Little Miami River...

Winging it across the Little Miami River in its distinctive undulating flight, the Red-bellied Woodpecker was recognizable before she announced herself with her loud, rolling call. She seemed to be flying with a particular destination in mind, and I soon found out why as she landed in a tangle of vines covered with plump blue berries where she immediately started devouring them in quick gulps. I’m not sure what species this berry is, but I assume it is some form of Smilax (Greenbrier) berry.

The female Red-bellied Woodpecker wasted no time plucking off one berry at a time and swallowing them whole.

She had such a taste for these berries she was not bothered at all when a loud group of cyclists whizzed past. She almost tolerated a couple of roller bladers too, but fled to the other side of the river in fright as they drew near.

On my way back, I found her once again in the tree, munching on the fat, plump berries.

Unfortunately, just as I went to photograph her on my return walk, I got the old "nothing" click because the card was full. Rats! Normally I have a back-up card, but Sunday was my first time out in the woods since the Swine, and I was a little fuzzy and forgot to bring extra cards. It will be interesting to go back in a few days and see how many of the berries remain (and maybe catch her lurking around looking for more).

p.s.
We had another new yard bird today!
I was in the kitchen working, when I heard the faintest sweet peep out the kitchen window. It was 47 degrees outside, but if I can stand it, I have that window open so I can hear the birds outside. I froze and listened, because it was a new “yard” sound. Soon it came again, and there was no mistaking it….a Golden-crowned Kinglet. The tiny little sprite hopped from branch to branch in the ornamental plum tree just outside my kitchen window. Magic… That’s three new yard birds in as many weeks, a Blackburnian Warbler, a Red-breasted Nuthatch…and now a Golden-crowned Kinglet. Yeah!!

How to make your own ceramic pottery bird feeder out of clay!

Almost every Thursday evening for the past ten years I've been going to the "It's Just Mud" Pottery Studio where I throw pots and bowls and hand-build cool things out of clay. Since I love birds, you can imagine a lot of my designs center around them. About a month ago, I designed this little bird feeder with chickadees in mind. Since it's so cute and easy to make, I thought I would photograph the process so you can make one too. ANYONE can do it--you don't need to be an artist or a potter. All you need to do is find a local pottery studio with a teacher who can supply you with the clay, the glazes...and a kiln! (If you're near Cincinnati, call Pam Ives at the "It's Just Mud" Pottery Studio for studio hours and class information, 513-887-2657. Pam is a master potter and wonderful teacher. You will have fun at her studio!)

Bird feeders can be functional works of art.

My cute little feeder is easy to make...give it try!

How to Make a Ceramic

Pottery Bird Feeder out of Clay

Step 1: Grab the clay!

Start with a nice-sized lump of clay. High fire or low fire, it doesn't matter. Your teacher can help you pick out the best clay.
Step 2: Create the shapes.

If you can roll out a meatball, you can make a bird feeder out of clay! The shapes are easy to form...a little ball for the head, a big ball for the body, and a roll for the tail.

Step 3: Score the clay.

When you attach one piece of clay to another, you must "score" the surface first. To score the surface, you just rough it up using a clay needle or pencil. Both surfaces need to be scored.

Step 4: Attach the tail.

After scoring, you dab water onto the score marks and then stick the two pieces together. Once they are stuck together, form the tail. You do that by using your finger to drag the clay from the end of the tail toward the ball. Use both hands at this time. One to support the tail from falling off and the other to drag the clay. The more clay you move from the tail to the ball, the more stable the tail becomes. In the photo above, Pam (my teacher) is our lovely model. You can see how she is dragging her finger from the tip of the tail toward the body. This is the hardest part. You have to move a good deal of clay!

Step 5: Score and attach the head.

If you notice, both the tail and the head are attached fairly high on the ball. This makes for a cuter bird, but it also makes it easier to attach the clay.

Step 6: Add a collar and smooth in the head.

Roll out a small noodle and wrap it around the top of the bird's head. It helps form the bird's neck. You use the same technique to attach the head as you did the tail...simply drag the clay from the head to the body with your finger.

Step 7: Add the bill.

Isn't this this cutest little bill? It's so easy to make. Form a small cone, score it, dab it with water...and squish it on! Voila a cute, cute bill.

Step 8: Check your form.

Here is what the bird feeder looks like head on. He's a nice fat bird, and that's what we want. That will leave plenty of room for seeds.

Step 9: Cut out a wing pattern.

You can use this photo as your pattern, or you can create your own. Once you cut it out, stick it on the clay.

Step 10: Trace the wing pattern.

Use the needle tool to trace the pattern on both sides of the bird.

Step 11: Hollow it out!

This is the fun part. Get the clay loop out and scoop, scoop, scoop! You will be surprised how much clay you have to remove. When you get about halfway through, move to the other side and scoop until you can see all the way through! You also should be scooping some of the clay from the top. Clay is very heavy and we want to get rid of some of that upper weight.

Step 12: Refine.

Once you're hollowed out, go back and scoop some more. Be careful you don't scoop through the bottom, though. This is a tricky stage. You want to be careful, but not too careful. This is a tiny feeder meant to attract chickadees, but you want to be able to get more than just a small handful of seed in there!

Step 13. Smooth out.

Take a wet sponge and smooth out all the hard lines. Scooping with the metal loop leaves a mess. You want to smooth everything out. You can also shape a little, making sure both sides look pretty close (but that really doesn't matter...).

Step 14: Stand back and admire!

Does your bird look like a bird? Is he nice and smooth and even? If you notice any imperfections you can fix them now.

Step 15: Stuff that bird!

Sounds like Thanksgiving doesn't it? But we're not stuffing this guy with breadcrumbs. Get out plastic (dry cleaning bags are great) and stuff the bird. Clay is pretty heavy and we've hollowed out the middle, disturbing the structural integrity of the form. The plastic will keep the head and tail from weighing down and closing up the hole before it dries.

Step 16: Wait...

It can take up to two weeks for the clay to completely dry, then your teacher will fire your piece. When it comes out, you can glaze it. Your teacher will then fire it again, and it will come out ready for use! Making ceramic pottery bird feeders is a very s-l-o-w process!

Yes...the chickadees love this feeder.

It's nice and small and just their size, but I can't

guarantee they will be the only creatures using it!!!

I hope you find a studio, get out and make this cute feeder. You will have so much fun. Just print out this post, take it with you, show your teacher, and go to town! It makes a great gift too. I've created lots of bird feeder designs over the years. I'll continue to post more "How to make ceramic pottery bird feeders..." over time. I have some really, really cool things for you to make!!! Have fun and get dirty (make sure you wear your old cloths to the studio!).