reversal of fortune

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As I was driving down a narrow road through the woods near a stream, I noticed a belted kingfisher perched in the sun close to the shore. I had my camera in the car and thought “what a great photo.”

When I was as close as I could get and beginning to lift my camera, the kingfisher bolted, flying lickety-split upstream, rattling all the way. Quickly, the plot thickened. It seems I wasn’t the only thing watching the bird because a Cooper’s hawk took off and was swiftly in hot pursuit.

The Accipitor was slightly above the fleeing kingfisher, gaining on it with every wing beat, closing in for the kill. Sensing it was in trouble, the nimble kingfisher did the only thing it could do. It tucked in its wings and dove straight into the stream. SPLASH!

In a split second, the wet bird sprang from the water and headed quickly downstream, the opposite direction it had been going. Coopers hawks are agile; but not that agile. They can't do an about face. Perhaps dismayed by the sudden turn of events, the Cooper’s hawk flew on to hunt elsewhere.

The kingfisher lived on to fish another day. And it all happened between the lub-dup, lub-dup, two beats of my heart.

Life and death. In the blink of an eye.


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backyard coops

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Recently I heard from Missy Steffey.

"I have a question concerning a Cooper’s hawk. We had a pair nest in our pine trees in back this spring and now have the parents and two baby hawks hunting our backyard. They love to perch on my daughters’ trampoline and occasionally dine there. I have so enjoyed watching the parents teach the babies to hunt and see them soar by our deck every morning and evening. My question: Do these hawks stay in the same area to nest year after year or will they be gone soon? I’m amazed that they are still here. The babies have been ‘out of the nest’ for over a month.”

In time, the young ones will draft away as they start feeling more independent. The parents may drift away as well because they no longer have a nest site to defend and may need to roam farther to find food. But, as a general rule, next nesting season the parents often come back to the same location and may even use the same nest with a little remodeling. The young ones will have to find a territory of their own to claim.

Thanks, Missy.

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catch & hold

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Wayne Mallinger from Madisonville in Monroe County, East Tennessee sent me this remarkable series of photos: a Cooper's hawk in Wayne's backyard. The raptor had just caught a mourning dove.

Wayne e-mailed, "I believe it was a dove. It was still flopping around when the hawk was trying to pin it down (photo 1). I took the photos from about 75 feet away. I was shaking, shocked at what I was witnessing."

Wow!

Thanks, Wayne.

- Photos by Wayne Mallinger

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Cape May

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South of Avalon is Cape May Point State Park, a birding mecca, especially in the fall. From September to December, migratory birds pass over the narrow finger of land, the last piece of New Jersey shoreline before the Delaware Bay. If the conditions are not right the birds linger in the area before crossing the open water. Wouldn't you?

First warblers migrate through, then birds of prey and finally, late in the season, it's the ducks. In early October, it was raptors. There's a large, wooden birdwatching platform built between the lighthouse and pond where the Cape May Hawk Watch takes place. Most days it's crowded with people looking up or out or across, watching. The first day we were there was Accipiter day: 358 sharp-shinned and 455 Cooper's hawks were counted. There were also 97 kestrels and 205 broad-winged hawks.








Cooper's hawk. Note the rounded tail trimmed in white.

Hawk put down

The Cooper’s hawk reported on three days ago did not make it. She had to be euthanized, her leg too badly shattered to be repaired. Cooper’s hawks rarely survive such accidents. They live life at full throttle, pursuing their prey like cheetahs with agile quickness. Injuries are often fatal and even if they can be treated, they make poor patients. Cooper's hawks are high strung and generally do not settle down to heal in rehab, often refusing food and drink.

Drawing by Stephen Lyn Bales

Cooper's hawk down

Cooper’s hawks fly, quite literally, at breakneck speeds. Rounding a corner, in hot pursuit of a meal, they will sometimes fly into a tree or wall or building at full speed. Crash! Yesterday, I helped rescue a Cooper’s that had been found flopping around on the sidewalk in downtown Knoxville. She could fly, she couldn’t stand or perch. The downed raptor was astonishing beautiful, although very frightened. One leg was badly damaged. I took the hawk to the University of Tennessee Veterinary Teaching Hospital. Time will tell.