A hungry Cooper’s Hawk has been hunting for a meal around my backyard feeders for a couple of weeks now. I even had to move some feeders because he figured out how to swoop down and drive birds into my bay window.
I know he has to eat too, but I just wish we still had some grackles or starlings around that he could pluck out of a large flock. There are usually plenty to spare!
He lands on the feeders every once in awhile, but never stays around long enough for a decent photo, so most of mine look like this:
Because it’s too cold to have the windows open during the day now, I don’t hear the alarm cries of chipmunks and squirrels and birds to know when the hawk is nearby. Instead I might notice crows swooping through the backyard trying to drive the hawk away. Or I look out and see empty feeders with not a single feathered creature in sight.
Last week after several failed attempts to drive finches into my bay window once again, the Cooper’s Hawk flew down and landed on my hopper feeder. The birds had already taken shelter, but there was a large Gray Squirrel under the feeders who was so busy shoving seeds in his face that he didn’t notice the hawk until it was sitting 10 feet above him.
He was in peril so I probably shouldn’t have laughed, but this squirrel’s defensive action was to run up next to the feeder pole and stand as straight as possible with his back to the hawk. He stayed like this for 3 minutes and didn’t move a muscle.
“I’m a pole! Nothing to see here!”
Finally the hawk flew off and the squirrel took a more relaxed posture for a few minutes before deciding the coast was clear. For now.
