Counting coup:
“Among the Plains Indians of North America, counting coup is the warrior tradition of winning prestige against an enemy in battle. Historically, any blow struck against the enemy counted as a coup, but the most prestigious acts included touching an enemy warrior with a hand, bow, or coup stick and escaping unharmed, and without harming the enemy, except for the enemy’s wounded pride.”
Yesterday my friend and neighbor Shane Smith joined me for a long birding trip to the west desert. Shane has taken up serious bird photography fairly recently and it turns out that he’s an enthusiastic and quick study. He absorbs the birding info and photography tips I provide like a sponge, which of course delights this old teacher. He’s also great company on a long trip like that and we found more birds than I expected to. It was a good morning.
One of the more interesting encounters we had was with an adult Red-tailed Hawk that was acting like a juvenile. As ‘he’ was flying in circles around my pickup he was usually screaming, just like a juvie this time of year. Based on his behavior, I was sure he was a juvenile until I saw his red tail. He continued circling and screaming for a very long time.
And when this little songbird (I’m not sure of its ID so I won’t hazard a guess) started chasing and dive-bombing him, the intensity and frequency of his screaming increased significantly.
Based on the time stamps on my photos, the hawk circled the vicinity of my pickup for nearly eight minutes with the songbird hot on his tail for most of that time. You can imagine how many photos I took in eight minutes of this behavior, but it wasn’t easy to get both birds in the frame and sharp.
You might expect the songbird to maintain a safe distance from the much larger hawk, but that wasn’t always the case.
Tag, you’re it. This is close enough to “counting coup” for me.
That little songbird was deadly serious about trying to drive the hawk out of its territory. Ballsy little bird.
Ron
Edit: I’m leaning toward Common Grackle for the songbird, but I still can’t be sure. I don’t remember seeing grackles in that area before.
Love these photos. Thanks for sharing them with all of us. My beloved Millcreek Imaging Center closed a few weeks ago. I’ve wanted to let you know that in case you need any more imaging. I’m so sad. I couldn’t have been more surprised it happened. We always did well and stayed busy. We didn’t get any type of explanation or visit from the higher ups. They just had HR call each of us and let us go. I spent over 22 years there and loved our entire staff and patients. If you need imaging, I recommend Mountain Medical Imaging if you can’t or don’t want to go to the hospital. Mountain Medical is outpatient and will take good care of you or my husband will be in trouble with me since he’s in charge of them. All kidding aside, it’s a great place if you need them. Your birds are still the highlight of my days.
Bobby, as soon as I saw your name pop up in a comment email I was excited to be hearing from you again. And then you ended up having bad news (bad news for me too, potentially). I’m so sorry.
Will you be moving to another imaging center? I hope so. If so, please let me know which one it is. If I can I’ll tag along with you wherever you go
Thanks for the recommendation. Very thoughtful of you. I wish you the very best!
I started with Salt Lake Clinic this week and it’s been great so far. Will mostly be there on Tuesdays and Fridays working 12 hour shifts. The people are really nice and I’m feeling lucky to have landed there. Hope you don’t need any imaging but if you do, would love to help. Have a great summer 😊
Definitely batting above his pay grade, to mix some metaphors. I showed a small chihuahua-terrier mix for adoption over the weekend and she barked up a storm at any big dog that was walked by the yard we were in — especially the huskies and shepherds. (She was adopted by a very nice woman, so the attempted coup wasn’t too much of a deterrent.😉) I have to admit to being a bit envious of Shane, but am very happy you again have someone with whom to go out into the field.
Marty, part of me wants to get another dog, badly. But a chihuahua would be last on my list of possibles.
Yeah, I really enjoyed having Shane along. It’s been a while since I had company on a birding trip and he was an excellent companion to spend seven hours with (it’s a long drive to get there. We started at 4:45 AM.)
My patchy education had included ‘counting coup’.
Some small birds (and people) punch well above their weight don’t they?
They sure do, EC.
I was once out at Farmington Bay and there this large mature red tail was on a prime telephone pole. A smaller harrier flew in and displaced it. It was just settling in and a kestrel came in displaced him. Our high school coaches were right, it isn’t the size of the dog in the fight, it is the size of the fight in the dog!
Made me smile, Ken.
I agree with others that the songbird is a female Brewer’s Blackbird. The tail looks a bit too short for grackle and the behavior certainly fits that of a Brewer’s Blackbird.
I have often watched crows after a Cooper’s Hawk. However, in most instances it looks more like play. (for the crows, not the hawk). They follow the hawk and pull its tail. I’ve seen whole groups of crows gathered in a tree watching one chase the hawk. Then, one will leave its perch and take over the duty of chasing the hawk. I watched this once for several minutes until the hawk finally lit in a nearby tree. Then all chaos broke loose. The noise of the crows was deafening and other crows started flocking in. Eventually, there were more than 100 crows putting up a fuss and the hawk finally escaped through the trees without further harassment. I’ve also seen a pair of crows drive a Red-tail to the ground where it sat for a long while. The crows didn’t hurt it but sure gave it hell.
Dan, your opinion goes a long way with me. Then female Brewer’s it is, until someone convinces me otherwise.
Nice action photos. I have always been amazed at the ferocity that little song birds show when chasing Hawks and Ravens who have tried or actually taken little chicks or eggs from their nests. I guess we too could be that fierce in the same situation. They will relentlessly chase and harass the brazen thieves.
Here in the Prescott area in the last couple hot summer months we seem to lose most of our hawks. From fall to spring we have them in abundance, but they seem to dislike the hot weather and maybe head up to visit you.
Thanks, Everett. I’ll take all the raptors you can send my way!
Counting coup, indeed! I’m glad you included a description and explanation of this concept, which sheds light on a sophisticated,
brave, and ironic form of “warfare”………
“I’m glad you included a description and explanation of this concept”
Kris, I’m a fan of western history and an advocate of Native Americans. Growing up on the Blackfeet Reservation in MT influenced that, I’m sure.
Love the battle shots. Here, our RTs were a bit late breeding, and the adults are now either nowhere to be seen or flying shotgun. Seems here that happens just when the young birds are beginning to fledge.
Sallie, this year I’m seeing far more Swainson’s than I am Red-tails. Very different from last year.
What an interesting series. The screaming face on the hawk is very disturbing. 8 minutes, wow! And what a touchdown for the little bird! (I vote for female Brewer’s Blackbird). Wonderful, too, that you have such an enthusiastic “student” – I’m mind-scrolling through all my favorite teacher-student photos, a good way to start the day!
“I’m mind-scrolling through all my favorite teacher-student photos.”
I do that occasionally too, Carolyn. Some of my former students follow my blog, here and on Facebook. So that keeps the memories coming.
Fun tho not for the hawk, I’m sure. Bird’s tail doesn’t look like the Grackles here as they are more pointed and, tho maybe a female, there isn’t the shiney black and bit of irredescense we see in them here. Whatever it was it was certainly “counting coup” IMO….. 😉 We’ve had a couple of screaming Red -tail getting hammered lately.
Made 98 here yesterday – UGH! Cooler (80’s) today.
Glad Shane is getting out with you…. 🙂
Judy, Shane’s a good guy.
Today will be our third day in a row of 99-100°. Tomorrow too. After that it drops a little.
Hi Ron!
I think the songbird is a female Red-winged Blackbird.
Great Pics and cool blog!
“I think the songbird is a female Red-winged Blackbird.”
That was my first inclination, René. There are blackbirds in the area. But if that’s the case I’d expect there to be streaking on the breast.
And thanks.
Great shots Ron!
Were you affected by the Xfinity outage? I was w/o internet and TV for 15 hours!!! The gremlins have been active at my place. Friday afternoon, both my landline phone (yes, call me a dinosaur but Bill just can’t master his cell phone) and the AC went out at the same time. AC repair person said that AC goes out often when phones do. Who knew? CenturyLink repair could not schedule me until next Monday. How’s that for customer service?
I guess I could’ve emailed all of this. sorry to take up space on your blog!
Thanks, Sue.
I gave up on Xfinity about three months ago. I got tired of them ripping me off with ever increasing bills for the same mediocre service. I’m with Utopia Fiber now and pleased with it, so far at least.
I presume your guy repaired your AC. In these temps, I sure as hell hope so.
It’s not quite 2 years old, and I just needed to learn how to reset it when something like a power surge makes it take its safety precautions seriously and shut itself down. So it didn’t need “repair” exactly, just a reboot. Now I know how to do that. He thought it probably happened when the phone problem occurred.
I wish mine was only two years old…
Ron, Google lens suggested that that bird could be a Female Brewer’s Blackbird. It identified the Google photo as having been taken in Framingham Utah in the autumn.
Always enjoy readinh your post every single day!
Den, I guess that’s one reason I don’t use Google lens. All three of these photos were taken early yesterday morning, nowhere near Farmington.
But female Brewer’s Blackbird is a possibility.
Unusual for an adult RT to just fly around screaming like that. Wonder what else was going on.
That bird taking after the RT looks so different in the first two photos than it does in the last. Wild guess, Grackle?
“Wonder what else was going on.”
Michael, there were at least two other hawks in the vicinity but they were mostly on far away utility poles so I never did positively ID them.
That songbird’s tail made me consider grackle too but I couldn’t be sure. Then there’s the possibility that the songbird chasing the hawk wasn’t always the same bird. Or even the same species.
Wow! Ballsy, indeed, and a great shot as usual.
Thanks, Cathy.
What a brave and determined song bird. You manage to always get an exciting photo. Thank You.
Stay Cool,
Kaye
Thanks, Kaye. Staying cool isn’t easy around here. This heat is ridiculous.