Friday, January 24, 2014

Coopers Hawk with a Starling

If you flip through the pictures, it is almost like a flip-book, although six minutes elapsed between the first photo in this sequence and the last. I was sitting on the sofa, which is below the window to my bird feeder. I had just re-stocked the sunflower seed, since they are really going through it in these temperatures. The sound of birds fighting interrupted our reading. We all (including Laney) jumped up to look out the window. I saw a Cooper's Hawk fall to the ground with a Starling. It looked like the Cooper took the Starling from my suet feeder. The Cooper flew off into my backyard and landed about a hundred feet away. I rushed to get my camera. The hawk sat there in the wind for a while, maybe letting the Starling finish dying. Then the feathers started flying. Fifteen minutes later, he was done. It was cool to see the difference between the immature that came a couple weeks ago. Experience must pay off. It was cool to see one of these guys utilizing my feeder. In a way, the Cooper was eating my black oil sunflower seed and suet. Don't mind losing a Starling, either.

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