Spring has sprung, like or not. Watched a few hundred Sand Hill Cranes fly over Ranger's Marsh yesterday. Heading north by northwest. Lots of migratory Canada geese and ducks using the marsh, also.
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| Sand Hill Cranes |
The Sand Hill Cranes are migrating north to their breeding grounds in Canada and the northern US.
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| Sand Hill Cranes over Gary, Indiana, flying north by northwest. |
After watching the spring migration, I went home. While walking from the car to the house, I saw a brown comet streak through the air just outside of my fence and I hear the leaves rustling in the lot north of me. It was a Cooper's Hawk on a dinner dive. I had heard one calling a couple days, this is the first one I've seen.
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| Cooper's Hawk, first this year |
I put down my coffee cup and unlock and load my camera. The hawk flies up and into a tree with its lunch in its talons. Whatever it's caught has a wide tail, what could it be? No squeals, so not a rodent. I've seen them catch lots of snakes but the temperature is just above freezing, too cold for snakes.
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| Cooper's Hawk and unknown prey |
After another short flight deeper into the canopy of the oaks. The hawk kills its prey. I'm still waiting to see what the hawk has taken.
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| Would not believe it if I did not see it myself |
The Cooper Hawk had caught a Garter Snake. In the middle of the pic above, below the large tree limb that the hawk is perched on, you can see the blueish-gray belly of the snake hanging down and curling to the left. I am wrong again, it's not too cold for the Garter Snakes to be out and about. Spring Has Sprung!
