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Cooper's Hawk feeder-watching



Things were pretty quiet around our feeders for a few hours yesterday.  The
reason:  A Cooper's Hawk stationed itself in a couple of conifers
overlooking the feeders, taking some sun and looking like a gray-backed,
tawny-breasted puff ball in the chill (high temp was below freezing).

Esther and I watched the hawk for 90 minutes from our bedroom and kitchen
windows, at a distance of 30 to 60 feet, and saw it a couple of other times
later in the day.  We based our id on its size and dark crown and nape.  We
saw a Blue Jay and a Mourning Dove nearby, and it was significantly larger
than either of those birds.  Color and shape identified it as an accipiter.

While the hawk watched, a couple of Carolina Wrens visited suet feeders,
and the mo do flew in.  The dove perched for 30 minutes on top of the crook
of a shepherd's-crook-shaped feeder pole, then flew 10 feet to the top of a
house-shaped feeder, then jumped down onto a rigid baffle/seed tray and ate
awhile, and then sat some more.  All the while the hawk sat watching.

After about 40 minutes at the feeder, the mo do flew into the same tree as
the hawk, perching about 15 feet from it, but with hemlock branches
intervening.  The hawk bent its neck and bobbed its head, but sat still.
After no more tan 5 minutes, the hawk made a quick long jump in the dove's
direction, but the mo do flew away -- it hardly qualified as a close call.
The hawk then took over the mo-do's perch for another 20 minutes, before
flying off.  It showed up a couple of more times in the afternoon.

Sometimes natures dramas involve little action, and when action occurs, it
may end anti-climactically.  In "Hawks, Eagles and Falcons of North
America," Paul Johnsgard cites a study that found a 79 percent failure rate
when Cooper's Hawks tried to catch birds -- their primary food source.

Len Pardue, Asheville, NC