Subject: [Tweeters] Cooper's Hawk
Date: Nov 25 14:33:14 2004
From: J Bonham - jvbonham at msn.com


I am writing this to Tweeter's instead of to everyone individually about the Cooper's Hawk that was here about three weeks ago, or rather, the hawks.

It was amazing to me that everyone else has the hawks without the extensive disruption to the bird population that we have had here. Since the hawks were here, all the little guys have totally, absolutely disappeared! In the past week a few chickadees have been here in the early morning and the late afternoons. Also a few juncos have been showing up in the last week. The jays have not been disturbed much at all, but they are only here from about seven to eight each morning. They have learned that until the weather is worse, they only get fed once a day. Not one siskin has been seen since the birds flew off in droves, sometimes more than a hundred at a time. They flew off in flocks so large that I have never seen so many at once. This continued for about three hours after the hawk was here. The little ones flew off at "warp speed" in flocks, skimming the laurels for whatever protection they could get. All of them sped off into the sunset, so to speak, as they all flew west. Not even a starling has been here since until this last week. Also, a sound that I haven't heard since the new jays showed up last winter has been heard again in the last couple of days... the sound of crows cawing. Of course, I did get my most sincere wish... there are no house sparrows here at all!

jvbonham
Centralia, WA
jvbonham at msn.com