On Monday I heard a ruckus and looked up to see a Crow chasing a red-tail
hawk and yelling at it. The pair flew east and must have strayed into the
territory of the nesting coopers hawk because a few seconds later I heard
the crow calling with a much different, sharper call, sort like YIKES! and
it returned back the way it had come being chased by a coopers hawk, yelling
its YIKES call several times as if trying to apologize. There was serious
aerial maneuvering happening as the crow ducked and wove through the trees
with the hawk in close pursuit. They went out of view but a minute later I
saw the coop lazily circling over the road and heading back to its nesting
area. In random observations I have noticed the rest of the week that the
crows I see are staying close to the woods by my house and not venturing
anywhere near the coops nesting area. At one point a crow flew briefly
towards that direction and another crow cawed at it and it made an abrupt
turn and headed away from the area.

Then this morning I heard another crow ruckus and two crows were beating
wings flying north at full speed again pursued by a Coop. The coop broke off
and circled back and the nesting robins all started alarm calling, or maybe
it was cheering?

Rob Sandelin
Naturalist, Writer
Snohomish