City Birds...

I take photos of birds. Most of the time it's when I'm on the lake and they are not always good bird photos and a large part of the time I may not even know what kind of bird but I guess you could say I'm a bird watcher in an amateur sense of the craft. This past Chicago trip I got a few pretty good photos of city birds. 

I spotted this hawk in Humboldt Park. We had just walked by the closed for the season swim beach and he swooped in low over the grass before rising up to perch on a light globe. That's the Sears Tower in the background.  

A closer view of an unknown to me hawk species. I'd say it's a small hawk. For some background, Humboldt Park was was laid out in 1869 and named after the German naturalist Alexander Von Humboldt. The nearby neighborhood where the PK live was annexed the same year. Maybe it's an immigrant hawk because this are was first populated by Scandinavians, then Jews, then the polish, then the Puerto Ricians along with African Americans, Mexicans and now finely the gentrified white folks are getting a foot hold. The hawk, the immigrant all with a story to make America great and not again but making it great as it has always been for being a place to chase the dream in a big Midwestern city.  , ,   

I snapped these photos of the red wing black birds raiding the dried sunflowers in the PK backyard. I was told if I stuck around long enough I might see a big old big city rat climb the stalk for his share of the fall foraging. 

The bids were also feeding on these dried pods just over the fence in the neighbor's yard. I don't know what they are but must have been pretty tasty. 

Maybe the birds like this area for one of the reasons I do. There are a lot of places to eat and the cuisine is varied as the people and animals you may see as you get out and about.