And by “completely different,” I mean winter raptors.

This coopers hawk showed up in our yard this weekend:

Note– all these photos are smaller versions.  Clicking on them gets you to the larger versions hosted on my web site.

And it got me thinking: what other really cool, big birds, can we find in winter in Vermont?

A fairly unusual one that showed up throughout New England this year is the Northern Hawk Owl:

Northern Hawk Owls are rarely found in New England, and when they do show up here, they are forced down by scarcity of food in their own area, so when we see one in the region, as with last winter, we tend to see several.  The one I photographed came from Eden, VT, on my third attempt to track one down to photograph (the other, unsuccessful, trips were in Troy, NY, and Center Harbor, NH).

Northern Hawk Owls, like Snowy Owls…

…and short-eared owls…

Are daytime feeders.  One of the reasons most owls are so difficult to photograph is that they, like this barred owl:

tend to hunt at night, making it uncommon to see them in the daytime.  This is why I’ve only managed to photograph a few owls outside of captivity.

Most all of our raptors migrate.  Even though we have red-tailed hawks around throughout the year…

the ones we get in Summer go South for the winter, and are replaced by ones who come down from the North.  

Among non raptors, the winter can bring large woodpeckers, such as this red-bellied woodpecker:

And this pileated woodpecker:

Feel free to post your own bird photos, bird observations, etc, in the comments.