Monday, April 9, 2012

Clueless Cooper's Hawk or feeding ALL the birds

Four times over the last couple of weeks, we have had a Cooper's Hawk land on the branches of the tree in the backyard. Not unusual, you say. And you are correct. After all, the saying about bird feeders is that when you feed the birds, you feed ALL the birds. However, this particular hawk comes in, and lands on the branch that the feeder hangs from, and steps along it until he is directly over the feeder. He then sits and looks around, as though puzzled as to where all the little birds have gone. Because by the time he's settled in, there's not a single junco, finch, chickadee or towhee to be seen in my yard.



I showed the pictures to a Master Birder friend of mine, and she was puzzled by his cluelessness as he apparently looks to be a two year old. Which means he must have learned to hunt at some point. Or maybe he's just a suburban hawk and cruises from feeder to feeder until he finds some small clueless bird too dumb to hide when a big hawk crashes into the tree branch right above. He did take off at an angle that let him use the roof as a shield so perhaps he got his lunch on the way out...




He certainly is a very pretty hawk, however, so I will just settle for enjoying his visits.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Upcoming Show in Edmonds

My EDGE class has graduated, yeah us!, and we have a show opening April 19 at the Edmonds Conference Center. The reception is from 5-8pm handily scheduled for the Edmonds Art Walk time. The ArtsNow Gallery hours at the Conference Center are 10am - 5pm, Monday through Friday so the reception is the only non-business time to see our work. Here's the list of artists.



The postcard art below shows the variety of work. We're a dozen artists which includes several photographers, a couple of watercolor painters, another couple of people who work in fiber (sometimes), collage makers, and a jeweler. Oh, and I forgot the non-traditional sumi painter. And the acrylics and oil painters. We are a mixed and interesting group and I think the level of work is exciting.