I have just spent an amazing 45 minutes enjoying a Cooper's Hawk! Whether you love them or hate them, this was just an incredible event.
I have been an avid bird watcher for the last 60 years almost and I have always been enthralled with Raptors. Pretty much everything here in the US from kestrel through Bald Eagles. Each sighting, each view is to me, a very special event! Now over the coarse of those 60 years, I have seen hundreds, if not thousands of Cooper's Hawks. But like with so many of these encounters, it is often a glimpse here, a quick sighting there but NEVER like the view I got today!!
No, there are no images! Just my words that I will use to paint for you the best picture that I can. My backyard here in Michigan is around a quarter acre. I have 6 bird feeders and 2 suet feeders that bring me feathered friends all year long. But today, sitting in a Balsam Fir in the back corner of my yard, I spotted an adult Cooper's Hawk. It was sitting facing SE and sitting some 18 feet above the ground. It was enjoying the warm sun and yet watching my feeders. And I had the most wonderful and complete view of this marvelous hunting machine!
I was able to see the overall size of the bird, a bit larger then a Crow, the flattened head, the dark charcoal gray feathers on the head. I saw those magnificent, beady, garnet red eyes as it scanned my yard looking for a potential meal.
I saw all the cinnamon cross hatching on 3/4 of the breast, the white of the belly and it was hunched down a bit trying to keep those yellow legs warm. I saw the dark tipped beak, the yellowish base and the hook to the tip. But I didn't dare to go get the camera!! My movement or noise of me opening the door surely would have scared it away. I figured to just enjoy the moment instead.
I will always enjoy the images that my brain was able to capture.
At one point it turned 180 degrees allowing me to see the long banded tail with the off white tip!! Just spectacular. But all good things must come to an end! A little gust of wind came up and swoosh, the bird took off, dropping low to the ground chasing something, perhaps a clueless Mourning Dove!
But that experience is one 45 minute period I'll never forget. And I am just so fortunate to have really seen "all the field marks". Spectacular!!
