Cooper's Hawk Feeding in St.Thomas

On January 21st 2007 at around 1 p.m., I was out and about when my fiance called me on my cell phone and told me that we had a bird of prey in our backyard feasting on what he thought was a squirrel. He suggested that I get home quick, I live in St Thomas 3 streets away from the Library. I was about 8 blocks from home and I was walking. I took my time, figuring that it would be great if I could photograph it, however I would never make it home in time. When I got home my fiance was standing at the door with my Cannon 30D equipped with the 70-300mm lens and directed me to the back window. Sure enough, there was a cooper,s hawk having a feast in our back yard. I tried to take a few shots through the window, however it looked awful and you couldn't see the bird.
I walked out the front door and attempted to quietly photograph this majestic bird without spooking it. I walked in slowly took a few shots, of course from where I was standing the poor thing looked like a dot. I took the step and snap method of shooting and crept as close as I could to the bird until I was close enough that I thought I could photograph him well without scaring him (about 3 metres). I stopped moving closer when he stopped eating, I figured that would be a sure sign that he was about to take off. I crouched down praying that I wouldn't fall over in the snow as I tried to steady myself against my garage. I got about 60 pictures of him in total. I chose this one because the beak is clearly visible. It was gruesome and awesome all at the same time. When I was done I stepped away slowly so as not to scare him and he stayed in our backyard for about half an hour or so until he flew off.

Robin Masse

Snow Buntings - February 3, 2007

Sharon Harbuck reports that on a drive this morning, with her Mom, they saw over 1000 Snow Buntings on Roberts line, east of Quaker Road and also again at Jamestown Road (not sure if same flock or not).

Also saw two Roughleg Hawks (sp.?) one across from Moms, on John Wise Line, and the other on Centennial Road between the Sparta Union Road and Roberts Line. Also at that same spot is where we saw a Northern Shrike.

The picture was taken through my binoculars LOL... everyone said it could be done through a scope so just for fun I held the binoculars in my left hand and camera in right and took a shot. These (digital) cameras are just amazing... I am definitely going to start using my scope for some good pictures!! LOL (look out blog site!!)