21 June 2024
On Tuesday afternoon when it was 94°F, a Cooper’s hawk stepped right into a stream of operating water on a road in Squirrel Hill. When blue jays and robins raised the alarm, “Hawk! Hawk!” Alan Juffs took these photos.
Birds are feeling the warmth this week as a result of they put on down coats all 12 months lengthy, however particular circulation of their legs makes chilling their ft a wonderful option to cool off. The Nationwide Zoo explains:
Wading birds, corresponding to flamingos and ibises {and this Cooper’s hawk}, have lengthy, skinny, featherless legs that make it simple to launch warmth from their our bodies. When the blood circulates up and down their legs, warmth dissipates by means of their pores and skin. This pure methodology of thermoregulation will get a lift when the birds’ ft are submerged in cool water.
— Nationwide Zoo: How Do Birds Deal with the Warmth? July 28, 2023
For a fast minute the Coopers hawk cooled his heels.
His respite was lower quick when the robins and jays drove him away.
Fortuitously in the present day is the final full day of Pittsburgh’s Extreme Warmth Warning. The warning ends tomorrow, Saturday 22 June, at 8:00pm. Sunday can be higher. Whew!
(credit are within the captions)
