Wild Philadelphia
As I was getting ready to leave for class Friday night, I saw a movement in the backyard that looked unusual. I peered out the window and saw this:
S/he flew to the wire, and we took several pictures of him/her there:
I couldn’t tell what it was by looking at The Sibley’s
Cooper’s Hawk, unless it was a Sharp-shinned Hawk (they are easily confused). I have a lot of pictures of this guy’s tail, and I’m pretty sure it was a Cooper’s Hawk.
Living in Philadelphia, you would think you would see pigeons and rats before you’d see a cooper’s hawk in your backyard. But that is the beauty of our neighborhood. We live very close to the Wissahickon and Fairmount Park, and even though we live in the middle of a long string of row homes, and have a postage-stamp sized backyard ourselves, we get to gaze out upon the backyard of the house behind us. The yard’s lot would normally have at least 4 row homes on it, but instead, there is a grove of evergreens.
For my first grad class in 2006, I created a powerpoint guide to enjoying nature in the city. I just uploaded it to my website, if you are interested: Exploring Nature in the City: A Guide to Finding Natural Resources for Philadelphians
The cooper’s hawk sighting is a new addition to the list of wildlife we have seen in our backyard. Here are a few we have caught on film:
A Deer! To be truthful, that is not OUR yard– the tree in the foreground is our boundary.
Here is the deer with our cat, Boo:
A Pheasant! When was the last time you saw a pheasant wandering around the city? I suspected this guy was a pet, but who knows!
This guy thinks he’s a bird, huh?
And a Downy Woodpecker… taken through glass/screen with digital zoom, sorry for the quality.
We’ve also seen other hawks (probably red-tails), and opossums.
We regularly have goldfinches, house finches, chickadees, mourning doves, juncos, sparrows, cardinals and squirrels at our bird feeders. A few grackles showed up last week– they are very cool looking, but I don’t like to seem them on my feeder– they are much too big and awkward. When our mulberry tree has berries in May, we will have Cedar Waxwings.
What wildlife have you seen in your backyard?
Tags: , cooper's hawk, deer, pheasant, raccoon, urban nature, woodpecker
March 25th, 2008 at 7:02 am
Laura, I LOVED the pix! Thanks so much for sharing. We’ve had a Cooper’s hawk here this winter too. They’re beautiful! At least when they are not eating. Our guy/gal had a habit of sitting in the big tree out front and plucking pigeons, sending a torrent of feathers down onto the cars. Which of course all the kids on the block run to pick up. YUM. We have had deer running through West Philly if you can believe it. NOT a normal sight. There is actually a group of deer living in Woodland Cemetery, which people have talked about “eliminating”. Jerks. I will have to check out your Nature Guide later. PS: Hope you had a wonderful Easter!
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laurushka reply on March 25th, 2008:
For some reason, we don’t have pigeons here! Except for the one time we got a bag of bird seed from Freecycle– the woman said she was attracting pigeons at her house, and lo and behold, we attracted them too. It was a huge bag, so I just shooed them away periodically, and they haven’t been back.
I think this deer was stuck behind the houses– he didn’t know how to get out, and I called a dozen places, and no-one could help. He either got out, or someone has a trophy on above their fireplace now!
March 26th, 2008 at 7:30 am
For some reason, we don’t have pigeons here!
(Maybe your hawk has a taste for them too ;) )
He either got out, or someone has a trophy on above their fireplace now!
Boy I hope it’s the former!
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