Thursday, February 05, 2009

Guess Who's Standing in the Window?

In the years I've lived in my place, I've gotten used to the pigeons in the window. They weren't there much when I had a cat, but in the years since, they've gradually made themselves at home there. Yes, it's a mess; no they're not nearly as cute or as happiness-making as the mourning doves who nested in my window in Illinois; no I haven't gotten around to putting up pikes or other deterrents.

Yesterday morning, though, I saw something I have not ever seen in the years I've lived in Hoboken. As I was getting ready to make coffee, I looked out the window, and saw this guy standing on the fire escape.


That would be a hawk. A hawk! Right there out my window on a snowy day.

The light was great, so I snapped a few shots. He stayed there valiantly (though he did not deign to step out of that shadow crossing his body). I'll post a tighter shot when I get back to my computer at home, but I like the composition of this one. See the hawk's shadow on the brick wall to the right?

I'm not enough of a naturalist to know what breed of hawk this is. Red Tailed, maybe? If you happen to know that kind of thing, give a shout.

So that was a good start to my day. And perhaps you'll notice that there are no pigeons anywhere in this photo. Nor were there any on my windowsill. This could turn into a real win-win situation.

2 comments:

The Green Cat said...

Cool! We've got hawks and eagles in my 'hood but I only get starlings out my window.

syb said...

Nice! All my friends are blogging about hawks these days: http://ashesandglass.blogspot.com/2009/02/visitor-returns.html