Ed,

Cooper's Hawks are, indeed, fully urbanized at least in parts of the
Puget Trough in BC and Washington. In some areas, many pairs are
present in residential areas not just in the winter, but in the
breeding season as well.

Andrew Stewart of Victoria, BC has been carrying on a study of
urban-nesting Cooper's Hawks for many years in that area. If you are
interested in contacting him, send me a private E-mail and I can send
you his E-mail address.

Merlins, also, have become an urban-nesting species in many areas.
I've seen a number of pairs breeding in cities in the southern
interior of BC. In the Canadian Prairie Provinces, they nest commonly
in many of the larger cities. In Saskatoon, Sask.-- where I believe
there are up to 20 breeding pairs of Merlins-- their breeding biology
was studied in detail by Lynn Oliphant.

Urban habitats, which are relatively new in North America, are still
being colonized by previously unheard-of species, and I am sure that
this process is far from complete.

(P.S.-- I completed my M.Sc. thesis in the 1970s on urban birds in
Vancouver, BC)

Wayne C. Weber
Delta, BC
contopus at telus.net



----- Original Message -----
From: <newboldwildlife at netscape.net>
To: <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2005 3:32 PM
Subject: [Tweeters] Coopers Hawk fully urbanized: Is that new?


> Hi All,
>
>
< snip >
>
> On the way out of the Home Depot store on 4th South at Sodo, I
noticed a juvenile likely-male Coopers Hawk sitting on a pole about 15
feet above the ground, ignoring the pedestrians and cars right
underneath it. It reminded me that this winter season there has been a
regular Coopers Hawk, a probable female, hunting the Pike Place Market
area (I videotaped that bird eating a pigeon on an awning 5 ft. above
pedestrians). Also this winter I witnessed a Coopers Hawk flying up
right over traffic with a House Sparrow on 2nd Ave by the foodbank.

> It seems to me that at least as far as winter residency and at
least here in Seattle, it can be said that the Coopers Hawk is fully
urbanized. Perhaps it?s always been so, I could be completely wrong,
but in the 80s and 90s I was under the impression, backed up by some
haphazard data that I kept, that the two falcons were urbanized but
neither of the common accipiters were very at home in the city and
tended to be seen mostly winging overhead headed for somewhere else.
Any rebuttals out there (?)--Christmas count data might be able to
demolish ideas like these.
>
> In this same vein, I predict that in the 20-teens we?ll experience
the colonization of the city by Ravens which may now be moving against
resistance from crows north from just barely south of Tacoma and south
from Snohomish County (although this also may be my imagination), as
well as the increasing urbanization of the Bald Eagle.
>

> Ed Newbold, residential Beacon Hill, where an overhead Peregrine
made it on to the yardlist yesterday newboldwildlife at netscape.net
>
>