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A neat little show....
toad67
Member Posts: 13,009 ✭✭✭✭
Looking out the window a little bit ago something caught my eye, and a Cooper's Hawk came flying into our back yard and landed. He was checking out some low bushes around our patio, and then started rapidly hopping around one of them, and staring intently into it. Then all of a sudden he jumped up and dove right into the bush, and before you know it, he was out of the bush and on top of a little Sparrow for lunch. All happening about 10 feet from the window.. The beauty and agility of some birds are incredible. The Cooper's Hawk is number four on the list.
Comments
At our old place, we had two very large and old lilacs and then a very large and long row of wild roses.
it was winter entertainment to watch the Coopers pick off the sparrows, most the time if you blinked your eyes, you missed the kill and just saw feathers floating and saw the hawk on the ground beginning to have lunch.
Mule
We also have a pair of scrub jays that will either stand on the table under the back porch cover, or sit on a tree limb right outside of the window and stare at us until we throw them a handful of peanuts in the shell. One of them is getting pretty good, he can get two triple peanuts in his beak. Oh, and then all of the hummingbirds, always something neat too see.
I'll bet the Sparrow doesn't see it that way. 😁
I grew up in the Cooper's Hawk migration route in the Texas Panhandle. In the spring I would often have one flying "shotgun" over my tractor waiting for me to disturb a young Jack Rabbit.
An old cowboy lived on one of the farms we rented. Had a nice flock of chickens behind the house.
One day I drove by and didn't see any chickens but did see about 20 hawks circling above the chicken coop.😁
When my sons were young,we had a dove nest in the shrubbery beside the driveway.The boys would go everyday and watch the nest as the dove eggs turned to fledglings,then young feathered birds and they flew from the nest.The young doves would hang around the nest for a week or so.We pulled into the driveway one day and there were gray feathers all over the ground and a Coopers hawk setting on the fence.I told the boys that was a good lesson on how the world really works.
We live on a pretty good sized lake here in Wisc. Just amazing watching eagles hunt especially in the spring when pot holes are opening in the ice. Glad to see they're making a good come back.
Not a hawk story but a few years ago my wife and I picked up some lunch at a drive through place and parked at a nice spot overlooking the west arm of Grand Traverse Bay. It was a very cold winter day and a fresh topping of very clear ice had formed on the calm water. As we sat there I noticed this bald eagle flying in circles over a spot over the bay quite close to us. That eagle then made a dive for a fish and did a splat atop the ice sheet! It nocked him quite silly for several minutes as he just got up on his feet and stood shaking its head.
I was a bit worried about the poor bird until it finally flew off after about 10 minutes or so, a bit wiser for the experience for sure!