Image Up Advertising & Design

Sharp-shinned Hawks are the smallest of three Accipiter species in North America. The very similar Cooper's Hawk is the most commonly seen and photographed hawk at Four Seasons (including the December 2018 Breeze cover photo), whereas the smaller Sharp-shinned had not been sighted at Four Seasons – until now! On Dec. 14, Club member Barbara Wasco sent this picture of an immature Accipiter and stated "we thought it was the Cooper's Hawk we usually get… we noticed he was a lot smaller than the Cooper's Hawk…it might be a Sharp- shinned Hawk." I forwarded the picture to the club with "I'm leaning toward Sharp-Shinned." During our Jan. 5 bird walk, there were lots of Accipiters – Dave Kettering called it "Hawkapaloosa!" Finally, one of them flew so we could see the tail, which in Sharp-shinned is square-tipped and may show a notch (compared to Cooper's rounded tail). Thus, the silhouette above nailed the ID of this bird as a Sharp-shinned Hawk! Later I looked through past photos of Four Seasons "Cooper's" Hawks and found this adult Accipter, which has a head pattern characteristic of female Sharp-shinned Hawk. I suspect we had an influx of wintering Sharp-shinned Hawks in December (Barbara's sighting and the large number of Accipiters on Jan. 5) and that some past Cooper's Hawks at Four Seasons were actually Sharp-shinned's (such as the probable female Sharp-shinned pictured here. Going forward, we'll for sure be looking more closely at "Cooper's" Hawks in the future! ~ Steve Edelman Birding CLUB Bird of the Month FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | FEBRUARY 2019 59 The Birding Club welcomes beginning and experienced birders to start or hone bird identification skills. Our main activity is a monthly bird walk along Four Seasons' nature trails, which follow native riparian woodlands. We keep a list of all species observed at Four Seasons and take field trips to nearby birding hotspots. Our Jan. 5 bird walk produced 25 species, which ties our previous records. The highlight was Four Seasons' first-ish Sharp-shinned Hawk (see Bird of the Month). Mountain Chickadees had a good showing and American Robins, which were absent from Four Seasons last winter, numbered at least 30 on the bird walk and are present throughout the community this year. They were joined by numerous Cedar Waxwings, the first American Goldfinches of the season (they showed up in January last year too), and other resident and wintering species. We meet on the first Saturday of the month at 8 am at the Trail A trailhead (Lodge parking lot). Email steve.h.edelman@gmail.com for current schedule and information. ~ Steve Edelman Silhouette of Sharp-shinned Hawk taken from Trail A during the January bird walk. Photo by FSBC member Dave Kettering. Immature Accipiter, probable Sharp-shinned Hawk. Photo by FSBC member Barbara Wasco, Dec. 14, 2018. Adult Accipiter, probable female Sharp- shinned Hawk. Photo by FSBC member Barbara Wasco.

• Cover