Subject: [Tweeters] COOPER'S HAWK vs. Eastern Douglas Squirrel - The
Date: Oct 23 15:05:49 2007
From: johntubbs at comcast.net - johntubbs at comcast.net


Hi All,

For the last 10 days, I've had a young COOPER'S HAWK (COHA) hanging around off and on outside my office - attracted by the regular crowd of feeder birds. Based on my observations to date, I wouldn't bet on this particular bird making it through his first winter when the prey gets a little scarcer and the camo from the non-fallen leaves is gone. He has made numerous forays into the resident birds without any success that I have seen - except that he did find an apparently window-killed bird in the grass that I hadn't seen, and decided he was hungry enough to go off and dine on that. As I started typing this, he had come back to the area of the feeders, perched on a limb about ten feet up in the air and waited for something to come within range. A Dark-eyed Junco complied, emerging from the shrubs onto the ground below the hawk's perch, but the COHA found out that just hopping out of the tree and hoping a small bird doesn't see you is not highly likely to work - the junco !
was lon
g gone by the time the bird hit ground.

So, he flew to another tree and decided to try something I had seen him do last week and couldn't believe at that time. Which was...let's dive at that big ol' gray squirrel on the ground and see what happens - looks like that thing could feed me for quite awhile. Whereupon, the COHA started to dive, the shocked squirrel jumped a foot and a half in the air, the COHA made a second pass, eliciting a second jump - at which point our intreprid young Accipiter retired to another branch to ponder the situation. The squirrel - still in the open - stared down (or rather up) at the squirrel and in squirrel body language appeared to be saying, "What WERE you THINKING, idiot?!!?" The squirrel then trotted off in the open and the COHA, still a wee bit slow on the uptake, went after the squirrel AGAIN. Fortunately for the bird, he didn't manage to sink any talons into the squirrel's back. I say fortunately because all my money would be on the squirrel quickly winning that battle wit!
h a big
poof of feathers. A Red-tailed Hawk, maybe or probably. An eagle for sure. But a young of the year COHA nabbing an adult gray squirrel - I don't think so...!

If I observe any further developments in the hunting maturation process of our brave but foolish youngster, I will post an update.

As I finish this writing, he has returned from squirrel hunting to perch out in the open on top of my feeder pole. Perhaps hoping that something will fly directly to him and spare him the effort...!


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