The adult female Cooper's Hawk was back today and provided some amazing looks
and hunting behavior. Yesterday a single grackle showed up at my feeders and
was back again today. Well the hawk zeroed in on the grackle and chased it
into
an arborvitae next to my hybrid southern magnolia. The hawk landed in the
magnolia and I thought it had missed its chance when after about 2 minutes it
hopped onto the side of the arborvitae and spent about a minute splayed out
trying to reach for the grackle! It was able to grab the hapless bird and then
flew down next to my birdbath which is about 7 feet in front of my dining room
window. It was so close I felt I could reach out and grab it. I was able to
get almost a role of film off. After about 5 minutes of taking full frame
photos
and it eating, it flew off with its meal. I was able to observe her close up
for such a long period of time doing some sad but very interesting behavior.
She had such intense yellow eyes, almost like a wolves that seem to peer right
thru you. Very cool.
Andrew
Andrew v. F. Block
Consulting Naturalist/Wildlife Biologist
37 Tanglewylde Avenue
Bronxville, Westchester Co., New York 10708-3131
Phone: 914-337-1229; Fax: 914-771-8036
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NYSbirds-L List Info:
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME
http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES
ARCHIVES:
1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html
2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html
3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L
Please submit your observations to eBird:
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/
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