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When You Least Expect It

Today I went looking for some target birds, beginning at Miami-Whitewater Forest where I searched diligently for Winter Wrens where 7  Carolina Wrens were foraging in perfect Winter Wren habitat. Believe me, every wren was checked through my bins. No luck this winter so far. On to the wetlands to see if the lake was frozen or not. It was. I would have to look for hoodies and woodies later at Lost Bridge. No blackbirds in the marsh either. I'm still in need of four possible icterids (Red-winged Blackbird, Rusty Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird and Eastern Meadowlark). Rather quiet. I did see three Red-shouldered Hawks there, to go along with the three Barred Owls I saw today. Funny how that happens, since there is a niche relationship between these two, with the hawk hunting by day and the owl hunting similar habitats by night.

Still hoards of geese at Lost Bridge, perhaps as many as 3000 Canada, 4 Snow and a small assortment of ducks, including 14 Common Goldeneye, only about 10-20 Northern Pintails, 2 Gadwall, 100+ Mallards, 2 American Black Ducks, 2 Lesser Scaup and 1 Redhead. No hoodies or woodies to be found.

Well, no new birds added while birding today, but.... while driving the bus along Riverside Drive near Bains Drive a small hawk was flapping, gliding, flapping, gliding ... an accipiter, only about the size of a blue jay, YES! A male Sharpie!!!!
Of all the accipiters I see these days, about 99% of them turn out to be Cooper's or unidentified due to size overlap between female sharp-shinned and male Cooper's or due to poor looks. But when one comes upon a male Sharp-shinned Hawk, there is no doubt as to the ID because Cooper's never approaches the small size of a male Sharpie. Plus the flap, flap, glide flight pattern is diagnostic (I learned this a long time ago with the Peterson field guides).

I added on new species today, Sharp-Shinned Hawk, to bring the total to 87!
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