Yesterday the weather was cold and sunny but the birds could tell snow was coming.
Seed and fruit-eating birds were busy chowing down at the feeders and fruit trees. Birds of prey patrolled those areas looking for lunch.
When all the little birds flush at once, look for a hawk.
Perhaps it will be an immature Cooper’s hawk like this one.
Click here for tips on the difference between look-alike Cooper’s and sharp-shinned hawks. Start practicing now for the Great Backyard Bird Count, February 14-17.
(photo of “Mr. Cooper” by Cris Hamilton)
I just saw a Cooper’s Hawk like that one here in New Mexico. One of the members of our group, an experienced nest watcher, commented that he’d never seen white on the back to the extent that the one we saw had. But this one has even more. Nice photo. Good luck with the snow, it’s Sunny here.
Found Lunch:
Imm Fem COHA – on Cherry St in Brackenridge just after 2 PM on Thurs Jan 2nd.
http://roboftheriver.tripod.com/CoopersHawk-010214-014.jpg
http://roboftheriver.tripod.com/CoopersHawk-010214-014-sharpen150pct.jpg
It was snowing and I was fairly close standing in the middle of Cherry St looking through that wire fence; that’s why the picture is a little blurry. These images are both the same, the last one I took, but the second version is enlarged and sharpened. BTW, that red on the COHA’s bill IS what you think it is! (Nature, red in tooth and [bill] )
The following Monday, Jan 6th, while eating lunch I saw the same COHA come in and perch on the front steps railing of the same house and after a minute fly through a large evergreen shrub and scatter all the little birds from their hiding place in there.
And I actually got a chance to tell the homeowner about it early this week. He thought it was a peregrine, but I had to disabuse him of that notion.
I woke up last week to a young Cooper’s Hawk munching on a pigeon right next to my window.
Picture: http://imgur.com/dgl62al
He left quite the mess of feathers, blood, and organs for me to clean up. How rude 🙂
Carly and all:
Years ago, in weather like we’re having now, on a Saturday evening a Coop flew right down Lock St in Tarentum at eye level carrying a pigeon right past me and landed in a tree between a house and a doctor’s office. I stopped at the corner at 2nd Ave (where some good friends live) and watched for a short while until the Coop dropped the pigeon and it landed on the windshield of a parked van and slid down onto the windshield wipers. The Coop took off shortly thereafter.
Next morning, in bitter cold, I went past about 8:30 and the Coop was standing on the windshield ripping feathers off that pigeon. Couldn’t afford to let that meal go to waste! I know the people who own that van only slightly, so it was a while before I got a chance to tell them what had happened and why there were feathers all over their van. They had no idea and had been wondering what the explanation was.
Coop never cleaned up that mess either 🙁
I have seen Coopers Hawk twice in Mineola, NY: http://foto.delfi.lt/en/album/68931/ 1st 4 pictures – on 2 different ocassions…
Thanks, Kate. Took that one in Marcy’s yard last year.