While walking with a friend after lunch today on the University of
Washington (Seattle) campus, I was paying very little attention to the
resident rock doves flying around, as they usually do.

All of a sudden, though, the feathered denizens of campus brought
themselves forceably to my attention--almost in my face!

I heard and felt the wind generated by the fast fly-by of a rock dove at
face level, which couldn't have been more than three feet (I think much
less than that) from my right side. I actually heard and felt it more
than saw it--it was visually just a blur at the far right side of my
field of vision. After they got my attention, I started paying closer
notice to what was going on, and in my and my friend's novice opinions, a
Cooper's hawk was looking for lunch between Suzzallo Library and Kane Hall.
We briefly saw what appeared to be an accipiter (long, multibanded tail,
very light underside, larger than the rock doves) flying up and over
Suzzallo Library. All that I have described above happened in a matter
of seconds/minutes (I'm not sure how many, but not many!), so we didn't
have much time to verify our quick impressions. We searched the skies
for several minutes afterward, but all we saw was a bird soaring high
above Drumheller Fountain--too high (no optics) to tell anything, but I
thought the tail was too long for a red-tailed hawk--but accipiters don't
usually soar, do they?
Anyway, I hope I haven't rambled on too long about the exciting ending to
our very pleasant luncheon. --Anna Coles, Seattle, WA
acoles at u.washington.edu