Well, today a large juv. female cooper's was being harrased by 5 crows, all
taking turns at mobbing her then pulling VERY quickly out away from her and
her talons. Every so often, she would flip over and make a grab at them, but
crows being almost equally as agile got out of the way just in time. She
went over toward a tree that was full of pigeon which was quickly empty of
them as she passed over. Since I was at work, I couldn't see too well but
there was a lot of down fast movement of birds which means she was attacking
them and the crows were following her mobbing her. So cool. Earlier in the
morning, all these robins and starlings just flew away in a hurry and I knew
an accipiter was nearby. A jay even flew away quite rapidly! Then, as I went
to go look, robins started flushing and I flushed a few jays which is a
clear sign that an accipiter came through very quickly. I don't think it
killed because there was no indication by the birds behaviors or anything.
I'm thinking that it just did it's fly fast around the corner and surprise a
bird which I'm sure happened. It probably chased a few robins or a starling
and then continued on into the stand of trees and brush when she missed.
Very cool. I had a good feeling she was further in the trees but I had to
get back to work so I left.

Is anyone going up to the samish flats Tue.? I'm going to be up there. I'll
have a cell phone and a walky talky on me so let me know and we can do some
falcon watching or whatever. :)



Blake Iverson
Arlington, WA
coopershwk at hotmail.com



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