SUMMARY

Those of you who read my reports of breeding Cooper's Hawks in
Volunteer Park (Seattle) last year will be happy to know that the same
nest is being reused this year by Cooper's Hawks and the three chicks
are on the verge of fledging. Probably in the next week by my estimate.

THE NARRATIVE

I've been keeping an eye on the hawks since I spent a fair amount of
time watching the them last year. Over the winter I was always
catching one or two (a male and a female) that were hanging around
Capitol Hill (and I presume eating the pigeons).

Starting in mid-May I noticed that I'd become very "lucky" seeing a
male Cooper's Hawk in the Park on very nearly every walk in the park.
Not bad for an uncommon bird.

It wasn't until the start of June when I saw the crows in mob a couple
of times when I could see a Cooper's that they weren't mobbing that I
began to wonder if there were two in the park (or in the adjacent
cemetery).

One trip to the park had me running (for accipiters running is often
the only way!) towards a crow mob. They find the best birds. Only to
find the mob was targeting a nest robbing Raccoon in the tree tops.
Not a raptor. Until I heard a Cooper's Hawk call from three trees
over. He had two crows watching him but not mobbing whilst the rest of
the mob dealt with the raccoon (it seems a crow flock can prioritize
threats). That was the first Cooper's Hawk call of the year in the
park. And he's showing an interesting in the raccoon (or the crow mob)
or at least pointing in the direction.

Over the first two weeks of June then I heard or saw a Cooper's Hawk
in the park on each visit occasionally more than once. The calling got
my hopes up that there was a nest. I though "perhaps they're calling
during food exchanges". I started to come to the park a bit earlier in
the day to see if I could track them down.

It wasn't until mid-June I saw the female Cooper's Hawk cutting a
conifer branch with her beak and flying back with it in her beak in
the direction of the previous nest. That's a very good sign.
Accipiters add conifer branches to their nests either at the end of
construction or just after the eggs have hatched. It's believed they
have insecticidal qualities.

At this point I decided I'd stay put and walk around the old nest site
listening for chicks and looking for wash. Next visit after seeing the
male appear, call then fly off I took a look at one of their old
feeding sites from last year to see if I could find some wash. A few
minutes later the male flies back into that site and call. Yikes, I
wasn't expecting him back that quickly. He passed only a few feet from
me in a glide and I'm about 15 feet from his perch. Too close. I start
to slowly back out and hear a distant female reply to the males call.
Then another flutter of wings and I see the female come in make a
talons up grab for the food. The male rapidly jumped off the branch
into flight exits the tree. The female landed on a close branch. And
continued with a quiet series of calls whilst looking at the prey
item. I slowly back out now knowing the food exchange location is the
same as last year. Then the female takes off back through the trees
and disappears in amongst the branches. I wonder if the nest is in the
same tree as last year?

Next visit I sit some distance away south of the tennis courts where I
can be inconspicuous but still see the food exchange point and the
horse chestnut they used for nesting last year. Its canopy is very
dense with leaves and very difficult to see any distance into the
canopy. A couple of scans from the path didn't reveal a nest. But this
is a good place to build a nest!

The next week or so of observations were of hearing the male arrives
with food about once per hour in the mid-morning (8am to 10am) into
the trees behind the Amphitheater, call a few times, then move to the
food exchange tree, call again, listen for the females response call.
Then the female would fly in a retrieve the food (in the usual rough
manner). Sometimes she would eat it at the exchange and other times
eat some of it then fly back to the horse chestnut tree. So the nest
must be in there but I couldn't find it. After a few observations I
eventually managed to get a feel for where the female was flying to.
And picking the right place to stand I could see the clump of twigs
with her standing on it in amongst the leaves.

So are there chicks? Or was she incubating?

THE CHICKS

On June 25th, a windy day, I watched the usual exchange and when the
female returned to the nest move to the place were I could directly
see the nest. This time the foliage (and the nest were moving around
in the wind. After some time I could see at least two chicks: white
fluff balls with a yellow beak and dark eye standing up in the nest
and actively taking food. Consulting the drawings in then Handbook of
Birds of North America (volume 4) I guess they'd be about 3 weeks old
or so. So when she was clipping the conifer branches they probably had
just hatched.

Last week a foot injury stopped me birding but I returned yesterday
and today. Now the three chicks are in and out of the nest (just on
adjacent branches perhaps a foot or so away from the nest ... enough
spacing to spread their wings). Their back feathers have darkened up,
their tails are in (though they look a bit short) and they're now
starting to look like fledglings rather than chicks. They still have a
lot of down around the head (that white frizzy look) but the darker
feathers are starting to show through. As one would expect they look
like they're a few days apart in hatching so one has mostly dark head
with a downy forehead, another has 50-50 down and dark (in pin still?)
had feathers and the youngest has a "white afro" of down. The latter
also seems very aware of the environment: he seems to have spotted me
a couple of times.

So according to the book they should fledge at about 5 weeks. By my
guesstimate that would be in the next few days. Then I expect to see
them one the ground and in the trees feeding (like last year) and
attempting to hunt for a couple of weeks.

THE LOCATION

The nest location is in an area that is heavily frequented by people
and dogs as the tree is on a main path. The hawks seem very urban and
used to people. I haven't seen them disturbed by human presence this
year (and perhaps only once last year). But if you do go to see them
please don't crowd them.

The nest tree (a Horse Chestnut, I believe) is in the Western side of
Volunteer Park by the junction of three paths (leading to the E
Highland Dr entrance, the E Galer entrance and the path eastwards
towards Volunteer Park Rd (the park's loop road that is now closed to
traffic).

I've marked the location on a Google Map. You may find it more helpful
if you switch it to satellite view (to see the trees rather than the
roads!). If your email client has broken the URL into pieces it should
be all in one without spaces or line breaks.

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=
116192252980958988679.0004602922036fefa08b8

<http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF&msa=0&msid=
116192252980958988679.0004602922036fefa08b8>

If you see any interesting behavior from these birds please post it?

Are there other nesting Cooper's Hawks around the city? Queen Anne,
perhaps?
--
Kevin Purcell
kevinpurcell at pobox.com