Our Cooper's Hawk

[auld argonian]

My wife took the dog out for a walk the other day and came back in with a mess of red feathers in a bag. She said that they must be from a cardinal but wondered what could have happened to make such a mess of a cardinal.

So I smiled because I knew that it meant that Princess was back. Even though I live in the city, the area that I'm in has a lot of "old wood"....probably not that old by some standards but for an urban area it's pretty well wooded. Thus we have a lot of birds and where you have a lot of birds, you have the odd hawk that knows a smorgasbord when it sees it.

So last year, I look out in the back by the bird feeder and perched on a tall fence post was the most wonderful Cooper's Hawk. She stuck around for a few days...and a few days more...so I named her Princess and started singing "The Circle Of Life" whenever I found a little mess of feathers that used to be a sparrow or a chickadee. It has never bothered me that the odd predator takes out one thing or another because that's the way it goes...my wife, on the other hand....

So after the appearance of the clump of red feathers that used to be a cardinal, I went out to the front yard and she was up there circling around. Very reassuring to see her back again. The habitat lines are getting blurred these days and so we have some of these critters that you wouldn't think you'd see in town hanging around. My back yard is a total mess so it's more like natural habitat than any of the others on the block...so it's paid off in that it's let me have this un-official "pet" living here.

Best

AA

[mull]

Amazing birds, aren't they. A bane to all backyard bird feeders. I flew a female coopers named Faith for two season. She would try to take birds up to the size of small mallards, and would regularly take rabbits, even thougth they are more oriented to feather than fur.

When I released her she stayed in the area for the summer, stopping by to sit on my deck on occasation and see if she couldn't get a free meal out of me.



Hope princess stays around for you to enjoy,
Joe

[MacBean]

I love the way they glide in silently like stealth bombers.

[Livingston]

Isn't it grand living in the city but still having enough open space that the animals and birds are still around? For the 7 1/2 years we lived in Colorado Springs we had deer, fox, racoon, coyote and bear in the yard. And yes, we were IN the city, about 5 miles from the nearest edge where these critters would normally be.

[BoldHighlander]

Very cool!

Just yesterday as I was driving to pick up the wife from work I spotted an immature bald eagle (head wasn't completely white yet) flying over head about 50 feet, making his way inland from the bay.

I live near the edge of the (Bellingham) city limits, but because of all the green space & the ever expanding population we have an over abundance of 'coons, skunks, possums, & deer (the deer have become a very real traffic hazard in certain areas of town). Sometimes coyotes stray in, and from time to time big cats (cougars) are spotted in one of the parks. Bears less so (those might be spotted on the edges once in a very long while).

We even got a moose wondering thru town once a number of years ago! About scared my wife to death when he trotted past her!

I like them all (except the big cats), but I really enjoy watching the eagles & hawks, and the odd osprey

[Lallans]

People posting here are so familiar with Coopers that I hope it means they've made a comeback from my big-time birding days in the 70s and 80s when they were still quite rare, so much so that it was feared they were on the way out. I sort of tapered off birding at the end of the 80s because it was getting so depressing, maybe there's hope for resuming it when I get to my retirement. They've even found an ivory billed woodpecker!

[Piper]

One of the neatest experiences I've had occurred years ago while fishing. My wife and I were doing some volunteer work at a Girl Scout camp in the Pine Barrens. One morning I was taking a break, out in a canoe with my rod and tackle box. After about an hour, I saw I had some company. There was an Osprey fishing the lake as well. It isn't a very big lake, but the bird didn't seem to mind my presence. He (or she) wasn't there long, only took about three tries to score. Kind of gave me a chuckle that the bird was a better fisherman than me.

[KiltedKnome]

If I can figure out a way to post it (where's Steve when you need him), I'd show the photo we took of the owl last year. There is a lot of green space in Victoria, and many large old trees surrounded by open parks. In my neighbourhood there is a large owl who nests and hunts over a fairly wide area -- the ever-present crows emit quite a screech when she/he is in the immediate area. My neighbour has a small pond in his backyard, and the herons come and 'fish', much to his chagrin. We also have at least one cooper hawk who comes down and rests on the birdbath. Since our basset hounds died last year , we have noticed increasing numbers of racoons wandering through our backyard and munching on the plums -- we once had a family of them in the plum tree, just bolding staring us down when I went out to berate them. I don't mind sharing with the critters, but I wish they would leave some for me, and they don't clean up after themselves very well.

[McMurdo]

Cool story. Here is a photo I took last year at he NC Renn Faire of one of the falcons they had on display.

[tyger]

Very cool. We have a peregrine falcon that hunts our yard (2 acres, downtown Jefferson) by day, and barred owls and barn owls that hunt it by night. Birds of prey in town are reassuring, but I have not heard the bobwhites in a while now.....

Not to worry though, there are tons of squirrels, song birds, snakes, lizards and the like.

Just so they stay out of my koi pond, though.