Julie Zickefoose on Blogspot: Cooper's Hawk Raid

Julie in the Flesh

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Thurs. Feb. 27, 2020, 7 PM: "Saving Jemima: Life and Love with a Hard-luck Jay" at Mt. St. Joseph University Theater, 5701 Delhi Rd., Cincinnati, OH 45233. Doors open 6:30 pm. For info call Colleen McSwiggin (513) 244-4864

Mar. 11-15, 2020: Bird Friendly Backyard workshop and Saving Jemima talk at Joint Conference, N. Am. Bluebird Society/Bluebirds Across Nebraska, Holiday Inn Convention Center, Kearney, NE. Right in the middle of sandhill crane migration! Call (308) 237-5971 for reservations.

Mon. Mar. 23, 2020, 6 PM: "Saving Jemima: Life and Love with a Hard-luck Jay" at Morgan Co. Master Gardeners Event, Twin City Opera House, 15 W. Main St., McConnelsville, OH. Free and open to the public. Call (740) 962-4854 for information.

Sun. Mar. 29, 2020, 3 PM: "Saving Jemima: Life and Love with a Hard-luck Jay" at Sunday With Friends,, Washington Co. Public Library, 205 Oak Hill St. NE, Abingdon, VA 24210. For more information, call (276) 676-6390

Apr. 30-May 2, 2020: Julie Zickefoose at New River Birding Festival, Opossum Creek Retreat, Fayetteville, WV. Friday night keynote: Saving Jemima. Curtis Loew, miracle curdoggie, presiding.

May 7, 2020, 7 pm: "Saving Jemima: Life and Love with a Hard-luck Jay" at Campus Martius Museum, Washington and Third Streets, Marietta, OH. Booksigning after. If you missed the Esbenshade lecture/ People's Bank talk in November 2019, this is your event!

Weds. May 13 2020, 5:30 PM: "Saving Jemima: Life and Love with a Hard-luck Jay" at Roger Tory Peterson Estuary Center's event at Essex Meadows, 30 Bokum Rd., Essex, CT 06426 This event is open to the public.

Thurs. May 14 2020, 6 PM: "Saving Jemima: Life and Love with a Hard-luck Jay" at New Haven Bird Club's Annual Banquet, Amarante's Restaurant, 62 Cove St., New Haven, CT 06512. This event is open to the public!

Sat. May 16, 2020: "Saving Jemima: Life and Love with a Hard-luck Jay" for Bergen Co. Audubon Society at Meadowlands Environment Center, 2 DeKorte Park Plz, Lyndhurst, NJ 07071 Time to be announced. Call (201) 460-1700 for more info.

Sun. May 17, 2020, 2 PM: "Saving Jemima: Life and Love with a Hard-luck Jay" at White Memorial Conservation Center, 80 Whitehall Rd., Litchfield, CT 06759. Call (860) 567-0857 for information.

Tues. May 19, 2020, 7 PM: Good Reads on Earth Author Series, by PRI's Living On Earth with Julie Zickefoose and Saving Jemima at Mass Audubon's Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary, 208 South Great Rd., Lincoln MA 01773. Includes audience participation, and will be taped for airing on public radio! Get the book first, read up and call (781) 259-2200 for information.

Thurs. May 21, 2020 6 pm: Julie Zickefoose, "Saving Jemima: Life and Love with a Hard-luck Jay" at Bigelow Chapel, Mount Auburn Cemetery, 580 Mt. Auburn St. Cambridge MA 02138. Call (617) 547-7105 for more info.

My favorite shot, with everything backlit as she fetches up in a snag. O beautiful!!

You see things from the tower that you couldn't from anywhere else. I always take my big Canon rig up with me, and most of the time I have it, rather than my binoculars, in my hands, held up under my chin, waiting for a shot. You never know what's going to fly by. Sometimes it's a yakky pileated woodpecker

sometimes a squadron of machine-gunning blue jays, and sometimes it's a Cooper's hawk. Wooo! A Cooper's hawk!

Look at her head, up, and eyes searching...I'd hate to be on the receiving end of that stare.

This is where my Canon 70-300 mm IS L zoom telephoto shines--on birds in flight. Set it on AV, set it for central spot focus, and it will track and focus on the subject as it moves. I love, love, love shooting birds in flight. This immature Cooper's wanted mourning dove for brunch, something awful. So she blasted through the yard, scaring up the winnowing herds and slamming into the treetops where they were perched. Never got one, but I was rooting for her. Hoping it wasn't Libby Lou she ended up with.

The supremely elegant airfoil shape of a Cooper's hawk on the hunt.

Made my day.

7 comments:

YIKES--something has happened to this post. It only appears along the side column and then only part way.
Is it my computer? or yours?

Posted by KGMom October 25, 2012 at 11:26 AM

Never fear my Web Witch is on it. This happened when I tried to update my "Julie in the Flesh" section and must've hit SOMETHING wrong. Seriously one bad keystroke can FUBAR the whole template. She's working on it right now, sorting through the haystack of possiblities. Never fear.

Posted by Julie Zickefoose October 25, 2012 at 11:30 AM

IT seemed to work for me at 3.29pm Daylight savings.
Thanks for the flight shot tip of center focus and AV

Posted by Rondeau Ric October 25, 2012 at 12:30 PM

Oh, oh, oh, to see pileated woodpeckers from your house! Every now and then I catch that silhouette zinging by overhead, mostly on my way to NH.

But then there was that amazing peregrine falcon sighting back in July, from high above the Boston skyline. Seeing that once makes up for my lack of Cooper's hawks on the wing.

Some photographer, or maybe it was an architect, said "Light never knew how good it was until it hit a wall." I think the backlit tail feathers of a bird of prey is about as good as light gets, don't you?

Posted by KH Macomber October 26, 2012 at 8:42 AM

Did a bird banding trip with Earthwatch many eons ago in the Goshute Mountains in Nevada. The project was studying migration of raptors and eagles, so I held a number of lovely Coopers Hawks in my hands to band, along with kestrels and Sharpies and some redtails too. I love these birds. Thanks for some stunning shots.

Posted by Stefanie Graves October 26, 2012 at 9:18 AM