Hi All,

After a several day absence, "Junior" the young of the year Cooper's Hawk showed up this afternoon around my feeders. His hunting education continues to amuse. I first saw him this afternoon scrambling around on the ground trying to flush any hidden birds. This time the local Black-capped Chickadee population decided they were going to harrass him and buzzed around his general location chastising him severely. Several times he looked up at them seemingly exasperated - perhaps having already learned that chasing chickadees that already know his location is a losing proposition. He later made one more from-the-sidelines flight into the vicinity and chased one of the groups of birds that fled the area - with no luck.

After disappearing for a half hour or so again, I glanced out to notice that about a dozen Bushtits were inside my caged suet feeder munching away like a swarm of bees - something I hadn't noticed that much last year. [To clarify what follows, this feeder is the type with a wire suet holder in the center, with that internal holder surrounded by a second cage with small enough screening to prevent starlings and other larger birds from getting inside to the suet. Downy's can pass through the wire, but most Hairy's and Northern Flickers have to get at the suet by contorting their heads through the wire and/or using their tongues to grab some suet.] Apparently I wasn't the only one who noticed the Bushtits, because here came Junior again from 'off-camera' swooping down on the apparently helpless little gray birds. Once again, he got his comeuppance. He landed on the top of the suet feeder, but had to hang on for dear life as it swung back and forth from his weight. In the !
meantim
e, about a third of the Bushtits decided they were positioned to make a break for the shrubs right when he landed. (The feeder is only a foot or so away from shrub sanctuary.) They were safely gone in a flash. The other two thirds of the Bushtits in the cage adopted an interesting tactic that worked like a charm. They simply flattened out against the inside of the wire cage, apparently realizing the the wire squares were too small for a Cooper's to get at them and feeling safer inside than taking flight. Junior took a couple of frustrated looks at the imprisoned birds inside, then flew down to the ground to contemplate the situation from there. The Bushtits remained frozen for a short time inside the suet cage, then apparently concluded there was no way Junior could get to them from the ground before they made it to safety, and began flitting out of the cage into the nearby shrubs. Junior watched in frustration without chasing any of them, then headed off to parts unk!
nown an
d the normal crowd of small birds are back at the feeders again.


John Tubbs
Snoqualmie, WA
johntubbs at comcast.net
www.tubbsphoto.com