Subject: Re: Inordinate numbers of Cooper's Hawks
Date: Feb 25 20:41:00 1998
From: "S&C Richardson" - salix at halcyon.com


Dave Shaw reported...
> I have seen four Cooper's Hawks in the last three days here in Olympia and
> south of town. In fact this morning I saw two within five minutes of each
> other, one adult and one juvenile.

Wow. What timing!

The gulls all went up at East Bay this morning. I stared through them toward a
blue sky and picked up an adult Bald Eagle flying low. After watching it rise
away I returned to my task. Soon I found myself looking up again. This time I
saw an accipiter gliding a few meters over the oaks along Marine Drive. Thought
it was a Cooper's; couldn't be sure. It stopped and soared back over me,
pulling northeast toward the eagle's speck-distance height. Adult male Cooper's
Hawk.

That's the first accipiter I've seen at East Bay in six winters looking.

Wind SSW, close to 10 mph. 50F.

Lots of Black Scoter whistling. Horned Grebe necks darkening. Barrow's
Goldeneye thinned out, but Commons and Buffleheads still in good numbers. Still
a couple of Ruddy Ducks and Pied-billed Grebes. Haven't seen a kingfisher at
East Bay since late January. Banded Double-crested Cormorant on a piling--I got
?78-? off the band through a windblown 20x scope.
--
Scott Richardson
northeast Seattle
salix at halcyon.com