Hi Everyone:
I took the dog for a walk along a local trail in the lowlands of
DesMoines today at 11am. I checked out a large stick nest that is
near the trail. Cooper's Hawks nested in it last year and at that
time they raised two young. This nest is a stick nest about 35 feet
up a 1-ft diameter alder. The nest is 1 foot deep and over 1 foot
wide. It's in some woods, but the alders are still partly bare and
you can see the nest pretty well.
Today a large (female?) juvenile Cooper's Hawk was flying near the
nest, and almost landed on it. Then it flew to a nearby tree. I
moved down the trail and saw it perched in a tree, and back past the
nest a second smaller (male?) COHA was perched. I wasn't able to see
if that bird was an adult. One of the birds was calling its nasal
keh, keh, keh, sometimes slowly, and sometimes in rapid succession.
There were 6 crows in a tree nearby. After the crows left, the two
COHA's did too. Later after we walked around a bit, and were coming
back to the trail, a COHA flew by overhead calling repeatedly.
Carol Schulz
DesMoines, WA
linusq at att.net