Cooper's Hawk
Left click on any item below for a much larger version
A large bird flew in front of me while walking on Lancashire Dr.
Photos 1 to 4 show it in a tree.
In photo 1 it can be seen above, and slightly to the left, of the basketball hoop.
It was apparently not interested in
me, so I was able to quickly take photos. It was in fact studying the everygreen
bush below the branch.
Soon enough, it dove in to the bush. One could hear some chirping, wings beating
against branches, and small birds flying out of the bush. Very soon thereafter
the bird emerged from the side of the bush with a bird in it's right claw,
shown in photos 5 and 6..
I took photos as fast as I could, knowing it would not stay on the ground a long
time. In photo 7 one can see it taking off. It went perhaps 50 feet, and then
landed in a tree, to consume its catch.
Photo 8 shows the bush and branch the bird was on before it dove in.
Tammy and I saw a similar thing happen a couple of months ago in a maple tree
across the street. In this case the large bird dove under the tree, grabbed a
bird, landed in the street momentarily, and then took off, with its prey.
Perhaps the same kind of bird, or even teh same bird.
As for indentifying the bird, the candidates seemed to be
a Peregrine Falcon, a Pigeon Hawk, a Cooper's Hawk, or a Sharp-Shinned Hawk.
All have a red and white pattern on the front.
Looking up Cooper's Hawk on Wikipedia, that appears to be a match.
Once called a chicken hawk by misguided farmers, they
were largely shot out, and are now rare.
