For the past couple of days, a coopers hawk has been around. It perched on
my feeder yesterday afternoon for several minutes, a nice view. Late this
afternoon there were a bunch of robins giving alarm calls in the south woods
where I live. I worked my way into that part of the woods as quietly as I
could, then slowly stalked along the trail but the dry leaves made too much
noise. At one point I just squatted down and listened. I felt like I was in
the center of a silent zone, the robins and towhees further away were
chuckling and chortling, but where I was it was still of all bird calls, or
signs. I took a few more steps and found a Jay feather, still with blood on
it. I squatted down again and looked all around but saw no obvious shapes.
It was getting darker and I had dinner to prepare so I took a few more
steps, and the hawk flew out of a cedar tree, the trunk of which was between
me and the bird so I did not see it. As it flew, another stellars jay
feather drifted down the early evening sky to land at my feet. Curious, the
hawk was not carrying anything when it flew and I searched both the tree and
the ground, found more feathers but no carcass. Do hawks stash carcasses
then return to them later?

Rob Sandelin
Naturalist, Writer, Teacher
East of Maltby


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