Two very conspicuous juvenile Cooper’s Hawks and their far-more secretive parents have been providing some interesting behavior watching in my yard for the past few weeks. Several times I have seen all four birds flash across the yard, presumably the young in pursuit of the adults, but that view is too quick to tell who is who. The youngsters’ persistent, plaintive begging calls start first thing in the morning and continue throughout the day. One morning last week at about 6:00 one of them landed on the skylight five feet above my bed and began squealing like a young gull. It appeared to be pecking at the water droplets that had condensed on the glass, but the bird’s long toes couldn’t get a purchase, and it kept sliding off, whereupon it would jump back on and repeat the process. Watching the young birds go after chipmunks has been interesting too, as they tumble awkwardly into the ferns and garden plants in pursuit. I have yet to see a successful catch, but there seems to be only one chipmunk left out of the many a month ago. No red squirrels are around anymore, but three grays are still regular and seem oblivious to the hawks—too big perhaps. It is also interesting that when one of the juvs is perched on a lawn chair, stone wall, or elsewhere out in plain sight near the feeder, that none of the regular feeder birds—Chickadees, Titmice, WB Nuts, Downy WP, or GOFI seem to pay them much heed either. However, it seems clear when a parent is evidently near as everybody bolts or freezes. Earlier in the summer the local Blue Jays mimicked the Coops’ calls to the point where I couldn’t really tell who was lurking nearby, but now there are no Blue Jays at all. Nor did we have much in the way of singing Hermit Thrushes, Ovenbirds, or other regular forest birds around our house either.
Bill Hancock
Gray
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