Why I Oughta...

We have a couple of - what we call - "nests" up in some of the larger, mature trees in our backyard.  I say that we 'call them' that because, frankly, we don't know what they are.  They're these large, clumps of leaves that exist up near the top of the trees (in a crotch) that sure look like a nest, but for all I know could just be a clump of leaves that didn't fall down. Or, that was...until I saw something recently up there.   On a recent afternoon, I saw good-sized hawk swoop across our yard and land right next to one of these nests.  Here, below is a photo showing that hawk perched right on top of said nest.  Can't quite make out what is going on?  Here, below, is a slightly zoomed in version of the photo: Still can't quite figure things out?  Here's an even-more zoom'd in version that I've annotated below: Well....that seems to settle things for me.  A little bit. This is, most certainly, a nest.   But, a nest for whom? ...

There were more than ten large birds flying together in what you could call a boil . Or, a kettle or even a cast.  I missed much of them, but was able to whip out my phone quickly and snap these photos over our backyard on a recent afternoon.   No idea what type they are, but based on my bird feeder visits, I'm guessing this was likely a boil of Cooper's Hawks . The photo below shows seven of the (more than ten) hawks in the low-flying boil.

We had a raptor visitor to our bird feeder this past week and I was able to grab a photo of him/her with their back to us.  You can see it in the photo below that she was perched on the top arm of our feeder set and there wasn't another bird anywhere around.   We've had other birds of prey visitors to our yard over the years and I've posted some photos of them from time-to time.  Last year, I saw a Cooper's Hawk in a similar spot .  And a huge bird far off in the trees .  I heard an owl on my walk to the train in January of 2020 .  And, most recently, a large hawk in October of 2020 .   I've identified the birds in various ways, but I've always been *kinda* sure about the identification.   But, this bird gave me a lot to work with in terms of looks.  Looking through our birding book, I seem to have narrowed it down to two hawks.  A Cooper's Hawk.  Or a Sharp-Shinned Hawk.  According to the book, the Sharp-Shinned...

\ It is hard to determine the size of this Cooper's Hawk in our backyard, but he was big.  And, I'm pretty sure he is/was a Cooper's Hawk based on the details from Cornell .  The last time that I captured one of these birds of prey was back in February of 2019 when I saw one sitting on our fence.  This time, he was way up on a tree limb and he hung around for a while - like five minutes - before flying off. This piece shows all the hawks that call Illinois their home, but I can't tell from it if I should change by classification from Cooper's Hawk or not.