Bird spotting

We have noticed a couple of unusual birds in the neighborhood recently. Not unusual birds, they are common, but I have never seen them in the neighborhood, They are the type I see in fields and along the highways out of the city.

First there was a vulture, probably a turkey vulture, seen during the day a few weeks ago just across the bridge, along Queen's Way.

Today we saw some sort of hawk or falcon, possibly a Sharp-shinned Hawk or Cooper's Hawk, based on a quick glance and studying the bird book. I'm not too good at bird identification -- you have to know to look at colors, striping, sizes but it seems there is always some key point I didn't notice! I'm sure practice would really help. Here is a link to the North Central Texas Birds website.

Anyway, it is interesting to see these birds out of their usual settings.