Reminds me of the Cooper's Hawk that didn't get a Steller's Jay. [Please note spelling of "Steller's."] A couple of years ago, I was working near the road in front of our house when I heard a tremendous squawking and screaming. I looked up and saw a Cooper's Hawk in the middle of the road with the jay in its talons. I was sure that was going to be the end of a very beautiful bird--the jay, I mean--when suddenly the jay escaped the hawk's grasp somehow and scooted off into the bushes, still squawking. The hawk didn't pursue its prey and flew off, even though I might expect a wounded, scared jay to be easier pickings than some other bird. I didn't see any blood at the scene. Apparently the jay survived.

Burt Guttman
The Evergreen State College
Olympia, WA 98505 guttmanb at evergreen.edu
Home: 7334 Holmes Island Road S. E., Olympia, 98503

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From: tweeters-bounces at mailman1.u.washington.edu on behalf of Rob Sandelin
Sent: Sun 3/6/2005 6:29 PM
To: 'tweeters'
Subject: [Tweeters] Coopers hawk gets a stellars jay


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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