hi all ... all summer long Gene and I have been enjoying the company
of a pair of Cooper's Hawks hanging out in the backyard ... an
immature-plumaged female showed up at the end of March and by early
April we had an adult male with her ... Cornell's BNA online says an
immature female will often mate so we were hopefully checking the
trees for a nest ... no luck with finding a nest in the backyard ...
but they must have had a nest someplace ...

we saw the female through most of April ...

throughout most of May and June only the male was hanging around ...
at the end of June the female showed up again ...

in the middle of July we heard young Cooper's Hawk screeching in the
distance and on July 18 there were two juveniles in the yard ... they
are noisy, clumsy, and totally entertaining ... we have a Chinese
Empress tree which has been their hangout ... we've watched them
learn to balance on the limbs (occasionally fall), fly from branch to
branch (sometimes took them a couple of attempts before they launched
themselves), and chase tweeties up and down the limbs (learned you
cant catch one that way).

most entertaining was the morning one youngster looked down too fast
and lost his balance ... wings came out as he caught himself from
falling forwards ... he fluttered upright only to start going over
backwards ... he caught himself again and went forwards again ...
this time he spread out his wings and went spread-eagle on the limb,
chest touching the limb and wings spread out along the limb ... after
a few seconds he righted himself and simply sat there looking about ...

here's a couple of pix of one of the youngsters this morning ... he
watched the tweeties (mainly Chickadees) and we even noticed him
watching our dogs walking around ...

http://columbiariverimages.com/Birds/Images13July/vancouver_coopers_hawk_youngster_07-26-13.jpg

http://columbiariverimages.com/Birds/Images13July/vancouver_coopers_hawk_youngster_07-26-13_B.jpg

we're hoping at least some of the family will winter over ... they've
been fun ...

enjoy,
Lyn







Lyn Topinka
http://EnglishRiverWebsite.com
http://ColumbiaRiverImages.com
http://RidgefieldBirds.com