Nature Study: Hawks

I've been lax in the nature study department, but this week we managed to accomplish a wonderful bird study right from our kitchen window!

Thanks to Lacy the very observant WonderDog, we've noticed a pair of red-tailed hawks in the yard quite often lately. Lacy doesn't usually bark when she sees something like that, but watches intently out the window and sometimes gives a little whine. Wednesday morning, after noticing that Lacy was studying something, Kathryn and I had a chance to observe a hawk as it ate it's breakfast. (Not as graphic as it sounds; we couldn't see it's meal well enough to be grossed out!) It's not often I get a photo of a hawk right outside my window (through the screen, which is why it isn't more clear) with snow still on the ground!Then another hawk -- its mate, we're assuming -- joined it to keep a look-out but never joined in the meal. I believe the one on the left is a female because they are typically bigger than the males. Their coloring was quite different, though; the one I'm calling the female was more brown, and the male was more of a slate gray, almost with a blue hue. From what I've learned online, the color of their plumage can vary greatly. I stepped outside to try to get a better shot (not through a window screen), and it flew off. I am obviously not a wildlife photographer. Especially when I'm in my robe and slippers on the patio covered in melting snow. So forgive the poor quality of the photos, but I'm still sharing because this was really amazing!We read about hawks in our Handbook of Nature Study, and in an old North American Wildlife book I have from when I was a kid, and I looked a few more things up online. Hawks have something called a crop that is in-between the throat and the stomach; it holds food when they've eaten a big meal, and slowly releases it into their stomachs as they digest. This hawk won't have to eat again for a few days. In the photo above (totally blurry--sorry!), you can see how hugely bulging her crop was!

I did my own nature journal entry, and I plan to try to do that more often to encourage the girls in doing theirs. I'm always torn about how much to push them to do it, so I'm hoping if I do it myself, I'll do less nagging and more inspiring.