adolescent

Adolescent Eastern Box Turtle /  by Todd Henson

Our first view of an adolescent eastern box turtle

My father has great eyes for noticing interesting things on the trail, and while hiking Sky Meadows State Park in Virginia he saw a young eastern box turtle right on the trail. We could easily have stepped on it if he hadn’t noticed it as soon as he did.

Getting closer to eye-level with the young eastern box turtle

Unfortunately, right after he noticed it we heard what sounded like the barking of a dog not too far ahead on the trail, and we had run into some hikers with their dog when we first set out. So I quickly got down and attempted to capture a number of photos of this beautiful turtle from several angles. Then I did something I rarely do as I hate directly interfering with nature. I picked up the young box turtle and gently placed it in the brush a little ways off the trail hoping it would minimize the risk of dogs finding and injuring it or of hikers accidentally stepping on it if they didn’t see it.

Getting a front view of the young eastern box turtle.

Not long after I moved the turtle a single person came down the trail and walked by us. We stood by the turtle for a little while in case a dog showed up so we could keep them from sniffing around the turtle, but no dogs showed up. We then wondered if that person had been practicing his dog calls. :-) Either way, we walked on, leaving the young eastern box turtle in peace.

Looking down on the young eastern box turtle shows the beautiful patterns on its shell.

This wasn’t the youngest turtle I’ve ever seen, as I my father and I have seen a newly hatched snapping turtle walking on the trail towards water. But this was certainly the youngest eastern box turtle I’ve seen so far, though I don’t know how old it is. Look at the bright and beautiful patterns on its shell.

I tried to help the young eastern box turtle blend in to better protect it from whatever might be coming down the trail.

Do you have any box turtle stories to tell? I’d love to hear about them.

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Observing an Adolescent Cooper’s Hawk /  by Todd Henson

A beautiful example of an adolescent Cooper’s hawk

Every once in a great long while I find myself in the right place at the right time to make some great observations of a bird or animal. In this case I spotted an adolescent Cooper’s hawk perched on a snag not too far away. My father was sitting on a bench looking out at the waters around Wide Water State Park. I stepped over to talk to him and noticed something out in the woods. It was a rounded spot of lighter color that stood out to me. I quickly realized it was a perched hawk.

Thankfully, this hawk didn’t appear at all disturbed by our presence so I was able to create a number of photographs of several behaviors. I do wish the area right around the hawk had been a little less cluttered and free of distracting branches but we sometimes have to work with what we’re given, and I’m very happy with what I was given.

Yawning

One of the first behaviors I observed was the simple act of yawning. Several times it opened its beak wide and stretched. In one image it raised its head, as if it were calling out for other hawks, and yet it was completely silent. In that photo you can also see the slightly cloudy nictitating membrane over its eye.

This adolescent Cooper’s hawk might just be tired

It may appear this young Cooper’s hawk is raising its head and calling, but it was actually completely silent, just yawning. Look closely (click on the photo) and you may notice the slightly cloudy nictitating membrane over its eye.

Flexibility

I know owls have great flexibility in their necks and can turn their head to look behind them, but I didn’t know other birds share this skill. The young Cooper’s hawk at one point turned its head almost completely 180 degrees to look behind it. I don’t know if it heard something and was looking or if it was simply stretching.

With a very flexible neck this young Cooper’s hawk turns its head and looks over its shoulder. Or was it just stretching?

Preening

It’s always fun to watch birds preen. In this case the adolescent Cooper’s hawk pulled out a small section of feathers and then picked one feather at a time and ran its beak along the complete length of the feather. I love how at the end it’s looking directly at me.

Pulling up a feather and running its beak along its length, this young Cooper’s hawk is preening.

The young Cooper’s hawk has run its beak almost the entire length of the feather while preening

I love how in this image the young Cooper’s hawk is looking right at me with a feather still in its beak.

Preparing for Flight

Eventually I left the hawk to its business and followed my father back up the trail to the visitors center. But then I had the idea of trying to come at the hawk from the other direction. It was right off a trail that went along the water. So I slowly and quietly approached the hawk, hoping to get some images from the other side while still respecting the hawk by staying at a distance it was comfortable with. Unfortunately, at one point my tripod snagged on some brush and I made too much noise. This disturbed the hawk. It stretched out its feathers, then began to turn around on the branch, giving a nice view of its thick yellow legs and talons. Then it took flight, heading up towards the visitors center.

The young Cooper’s hawk spreads out the feathers of its tail and wings

While raising its wings this young Cooper’s hawk gives us a better view of its thick yellow legs and sharp talons

Having turned around on the branch, this young Cooper’s hawk prepares for flight

When I returned to the visitors center I was very pleased to see the hawk fly right back down to where it had been. So while I did disturb it, which I don’t enjoy doing, I didn’t disturb it for long. Granted, it’s unlikely it remained down there for much longer as shortly afterwards I saw a person walking their dog along that trail.

Identification

I’m not currently very skilled at identifying hawks, especially in the field. But I created enough photographs that I was able to piece together the species at home. One of the first things I noticed was the length of its tail. This seemed to point to either a Cooper’s hawk or a sharp-shinned hawk, which are both in this area and have longer tails than many other hawks.

This hawk seemed to be a somewhat chunky bird which pointed more towards a Cooper’s which is larger than the sharp-shinned.

Another difference between the two is that Cooper’s tend to have more rounded tail feathers, whereas sharp-shinned are more angular. This can be difficult to tell, as it was in this case, but the end of the tail feathers did appear a little more rounded.

I did struggle, though, in accepting that it might be a Cooper’s hawk because the coloration didn’t match the majority of the photos I’d seen. But this is what actually led to the identification of it being an adolescent Cooper’s hawk, with that nice bright white chest with streaks of dark brown. As it grows older it will lose some of that bright white in the chest and its back feathers will turn a darker grey-blue.

Resources

The resources below contain affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links. This is at no extra cost to you. Thanks for your support.

I used a number of resources to help with the ID. My go-to field guide is the Peterson Field Guide to Birds of North America, which uses paintings. I also like using the Kaufman Field Guide to Birds of North America, which uses photos. In this case, though, I found Peterson’s Hawks of North America to be extremely helpful. Being specific to hawks it included more pictures and descriptions and used both paintings and photographs. Finally, to double check my own ID I used the phone apps, Seek and Merlin Bird ID, feeding them photos of the bird. Both agreed with the ID of a Cooper’s hawk.

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One Morning With Tundra Swans /  by Todd Henson

Four tundra swans far from the tundra

I mentioned in a previous post how my father and I stumbled across tundra swans late last year while hiking in Mason Neck National Wildlife Refuge. We only really took notice of them because of the very loud sounds they were making, sounds that we weren’t used to hearing in the area. We learned the birds making them were tundra swans and that they regularly overwinter in the area. That lit a fire in me to photograph them and after several failed starts we managed to find them again on January 7th, and this time I had a long lens with me. They were still at a bit of a distance, so you won’t find any great closeups in this collection of photos. But I was pleased with the variety I was able to create and of the different behaviors we observed. Of course, I’d love to get better views of them and my father and I have been looking around other locations where we’ve heard folks have seen them or where we think they might be seen, but time will tell whether we get any better opportunities.

Flight of the tundra swans

There are two sub-species of tundra swans: Bewick’s swans and whistling swans. Those seen here are of the whistling swan variety. One indication of this is the area where we saw them, with Bewick’s swans generally found in Eurasia and whistling swans in North America. Another indication is the very small amount of yellow on the base of their bills near their eyes, almost invisible in many of these photos because of their distance from us. Bewick’s swans would typically have more yellow.

Goodby, tundra swans

These tundra swans seemed to cluster in smaller, more tight knit groups, perhaps families, sometimes two or three swans, sometimes five or six. In some cases we observed younger swans in the groups which have light grey plumage, especially around their head, instead of the bright white of the adults. Another interesting observation is how some of them have a reddish tint to the feathers of their head nearest their beaks. This is apparently indicative of a large amount of iron ions in the water. I don’t know if that’s the case in the waters where we viewed them or if it was the case with the waters where they migrated from, further north.

Tundra swans swimming upstream. Notice the two adolescents with grey plumage near their head.

Sometimes these tight knit groups would join others and create larger groupings of swans. In one case we watched as a new group flew into the area and landed near a second group. The two groups came together and when they did there was a huge commotion of loud vocalizations, flapping wings and water splashing everywhere. It was as if these were great friends who hadn’t seen each other in ages and were getting reacquainted.

Looking for a place to land

The get together

But, of course, there’s always one of those in every crowd, someone who just doesn’t get along, who has to show off their dominance. Thankfully, we were around to see this and watched as one tundra swan stretched out its neck and chased after another. Granted, it didn’t drive it far away, and eventually they all gathered together again, but not until both understood their place in the tundra swan hierarchy. And notice the two small ducks in the lower left trying to mind their own business.

There’s always one in every crowd

My favorite photographs were some I created earliest in the morning when a group of three tundra swans slowly swam upstream towards the rising sun. I was able to photograph them in silhouette, both as they passed a group of three ducks, and with just the swans. I love how sometimes a single swan will bend its neck just slightly. Very elegant. Look closely and you can see many ducks at a distance out on the Potomac River.

Passersby

A peaceful moment

I hope you’ve enjoyed this look at our morning with tundra swans. Though I’d certainly like to see more and create better photographs of them, I’m also very happy we had this opportunity and that I was able to create these photos and show them to you. Tundra swans are a beautiful and fascinating species.

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