On Wed, 3 Jan 1996, MR HUGH A JENNINGS wrote:

> Monday morning (Jan. 1) as I was walking on the east side of Larsen L. in
> Bellevue I came up on a Cooper's Hawk perched about 10' high in some brush.
> I was only about 12-15' away from it. It really startled me to come up on
> it so close. It had both its wings and tail in spread position. It looked
> wet and bedraggled. I was surprised it didn't fly off right away so I
> backed off a few feet and watched. After 20-30 sec. it flew off but
> appeared to be laboring in its flight. It only flew about 50 yards and lit
> about 30' feet up in a tree. It again spread its wings and tail as if
> trying to dry them out. It hadn't been raining that morning. When I first
> saw the COHA it was about 20 yards from the lake, but couldn't imagine how
> it would be wet unless some other bird had forced it down into the water.
> Any ideas as to what might have happened or why it had wings & tail spread?
> Hugh Jennings
> Bellevue, WA
> 206-746-6351
>
>

Hugh, it sounds like you caught up to a Cooper's Hawk just as it was drying
off from its morning bath.

Chris Hill
Everett, WA
cehill at u.washington.edu