From post 2337
j
While out walking around the parking lot at work the other day, I heard that distinct screech of a red tailed hawk. (IIRC, that’s the standard hawk/eagle sound effect used in TV and movies.) I looked up and saw three of them circling about 100 ft up. While I see hawks quite often, I don’t usually hear them.
Back in the spring I had to make a trip to a local medical center/pharmacy. As I was walking back to my truck in the parking lot, a crow kept lighting in the tree ahead of me, then as I passed, advancing to the next tree. Several seconds later, 2 crows started mobbing me. Looking ahead, I spotted a young crow on the ground, unable to fly, but stuck in the roadway because it couldn’t jump up on the curb. As I tried to corral the youngster to the handicapped access to the sidewalk, the parent crows dive-bombed me, and actually hit me in the head a few times trying to run me off. Did get the little one up on the sidewalk and out of traffic, but the parents were unappreciative as hell!
Mockingbirds will do this too. Big brass ones, they have.
Boy, do they ever. Brings back memories of growing up in West Texas & the mockingbirds that were ever present.
Yesterday morning we saw a Red Admiral sunning itself
Really late in the year for that, at least round these parts.
j
We had a red tail hawk in our Philadelphia Lowes store last week. Pretty impressive flying down the aisle 15 ft overhead.
Theres a fair amount of mice and sparrows inside, so I think it came in intentionally.
Lovely!
Yeah, I bet! 
So there’s a quite small heavily shaded spot in a park near my home that’s referred to by birders in the know as the ‘sapsucker spot’, that is very frequently visited by migrating sapsuckers every winter. They just love these four of five medium-sized trees in one little corner. Sapsuckers are very quiet and kinda skulky, so it’s always cool to catch one in a photogenic mood. Classic Red-breasted Sapsucker, with all the accoutrements: zygodactyl feet with two toes facing forward and two back for easy scrambling up and down tree trunks, the stiffened woodpecker tail pushed into the tree to help stabilize them while they hammer away, a new series of sap holes it is drilling and an ancient series of holes at its tail from a previous sapsucker generation.
Opposite side of the tree, more fresh holes. Yes, they can occasionally damage or kill trees like this if they girdle them bad enough. Orchard owners sometimes used to shoot them as pests. But these trees have been drilled for years and years and are still more or less healthy looking (aside from the hundreds of lines of holes).
Other random semi-recent birds: A Red-tailed Hawk that fooled me for about 30 seconds into thinking it was something rarer - stupid juvenile with a not-yet-red tail 
. Another juvenile, this time a Sora skulking about a marsh. A cute as a bug little Common Yellowthroat, skulking about the same marsh. And a random Killdeer, just because I like their choice of eyeshadow.
Great photos!
This Snowy Owl was an unexpected visitor today. Not often seen in the Chicago area. My field guide says this is likely when the lemming population up north plummets. Not a good sign for our local chipmunk and field mice populations.
Oh, that’s wonderful. 
LOVE the sapsuckers! I’ve been waiting to see my first one, hasn’t happened yet. We get the yellow-bellied variety here.
Our pear tree is full of holes they’ve drilled and last year I even got some shots of one at our suet feeder (Feederwatch printed a copy of one of my sapsucker photos on their calendar for this year, which really surprised me).
Northern Flickers have shown up, but they never seem to be around when the light is good, so I’ve lots of crappy photos of flickers in low light, hmph.
Niiiiice. That falls into the category of North American birds I don’t really expect to see in my lifetime. I’m just too far south for irruptive individuals and I don’t think I’d make a special trip. But that would be a thrill.
We seem to get one every few years in this area but this was a lifer for me. It was a beauty.
And so fortunate to get a photo, as well! I remember seeing one, once, sitting on a fence bordering farmland when I was visiting relatives in Wisconsin. I think I was about 8. That will probably be the only time I ever see one.
Fabulous bird photos, guys!
j
Very interesting. Thanks for the info!
Got a lifer, heard a Long-Eared Owl in the pre-dawn gloaming this morning. He’s probably camped out in the area for the winter (I live near a riverine forest), so I’ll be keeping an eye and an ear out for him.