Sharp Shinned Hawk, FINALLY!

 

Since moving to Nottingham, NH, I have had the pleasure of having a resident sharp-shinned hawk that calls my property home. I have tried at least 5 times to get a photo of him with no luck, that is until today.

I was headed out on a nice Sunday morning scouting  mission, as I pulled out of my driveway there he was, just relaxing on the wire digesting a recent meal of some sort of bird. You can see the down feathers still in his large talons ( Napoleon Dynamite reference)

From what I can tell it seems to be a sub adult, but I would be open to any other thoughts, I know they color and patterning can vary greatly depending on age and sex, then throw in the coopers hawk and you got yourself a true puzzle. My favorite resource for convincing myself what I am looking at is Allaboutbirds.org THIS link helps to identify the differences.

Enjoy!
Bill