One of the Lithuania Cooper's is having quite the bad feather day. I don't know, maybe it got up on the wrong side of the nest.
It looks pretty awful. Today it spent approx an hour and a half on its dead elm perch grooming tattered feathers, stretching wings, spreading tail, picking at legs with beak, rubbing beak on branch. The only feather not looking ragged or sticking out sideways was a fluffy white undertail covert. Not a sign of one of them. After an hour this hapless bird started to look more like a hawk. Does anyone know if this is moulting time or should some other explanation be considered?
Other birds approached the perch but veered away quite smartly. The hawk doesn't usually stick around so long, so maybe these birds had planned a landing but changed their minds in a hurry, or maybe they wee brave scouting parties. At least 4 birds did this throughout the grooming period. I think one was a jay & another a grackle--woodland birds with short round wings & long tails--but they didn't stick around & I was watching the hawk.
This morning's backyard count:
Audible only: Cardinal, blue jay, house sparrow
Sighted (& id'd): Cooper's hawk, chimney swift.
What a list. Sheesh.
