Sharp Shinned Hawk after Cardinals

[skyviewer]

Was on a hike and admiring a pair of cardinals a male and female.  They flew off.  About 10 minutes later i hear a commotion ahead in a bush.  I see the two cardinals race out of the bush and head for some bushes less than 50 feet from me.  In hot pursuit was the sharp shinned who landed in a tree right above the bush that the cardinals were hiding in.

Here's the pics of the Sharpie

Enjoy

[denis]

talk about beeing in the right place at the right time!
great shots.
denis

[egret]

Awesome px

this bird would be
a real tough one
to deal with

hope the cardinals escaped


Egret

[rc2009]

Great stuf.

[Ann Brokelman]

beautiful hawk. nicely done skyviewer.  Ann

[Misty01]

great pictures, sounds like it was a fun walk  

[DarylG]

In that second image it looks like he was sizing you up as a replacement meal over the cardinals .

DG

[skyviewer]

Hey thanks for the comments.  This was a definite help in identifying the differences between the sharp shinned and the coopers as the sharpie is defintely a smaller bird compared to the coopers i got pics of recently.  The cooper also seemed to have a more greyish blue wing feathers and heavier horizontal barring on the chest wheras this sharpie has brown wings and a more whiter breast.  I guess the sex and age can have an effect on how difficult it is to identify the two birds from each other.
He did look pretty hungry.  Is it bad that deep deep down i was kinda hoping he would have got some dinner so i could have got some really really good pics.