MR COOPER IS HERE

[33yardbirds]

The Coopers Hawk migration has begun. Had two attempts in 3 days. Swing and a miss. These are the poorest air assault hawks I have ever seen. Still the crew is put up in the coop and covered run until about mid October.

 

[centrarchid]

Assaults you observed may be similar to what I observed this morning involving a male sharp-shinned and a group of about 8 bluejays. Hawks were essentially playing. In my case hawk had clear air superiority but wanted to perch where it could apparently watch for starlings in a bush a couple hundred feet away. Every time hawk perched, jays flew up tree and got above hawk then began to mob hawk. As soon as hawk got into air it chased the slightly smaller jays down into lower branches of tree where jays could then run it out. Hawk would then quickly resume the elevated perch where process began anew. Process repeated for a good 20 minutes before hawk began flying south again.