When I first read Rachel's post, my immediate thought was Cooper's Hawk.
However, the owl-like appearance seems to rule that out.
I have seen harriers hunting in back yards several times outside of
Stanwood. In all cases, the yards were near small open fields. Because of
the adjacent habitat, I wasn't that surprised (just envious of a *great*
yard bird). I would have been really surprised if I had seen a pair buzzing
feeders, though.
I hope it is possible to convince the people in the Seattle Hills
neighborhood that they are seeing very interesting behavior (it would be
great to document it), plus, many people have never been lucky enough to see
an aerial predator hunting at close range.


Ruth Taylor
Ballard/Seattle
rutht at seanet.com