This handsome guy or gal was perched in our backyard about noon today. We couldn't get a look at its back, but identify it as a probable Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii). Apparently, they're not unknown around Ottawa. It seemed to be hanging out with three crows, who were perched in the other tree, and they all flew off together while I was walking around the yard.
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Now that's a BIRD!
This handsome guy or gal was perched in our backyard about noon today. We couldn't get a look at its back, but identify it as a probable Cooper's Hawk (Accipiter cooperii). Apparently, they're not unknown around Ottawa. It seemed to be hanging out with three crows, who were perched in the other tree, and they all flew off together while I was walking around the yard.
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5 comments:
Hi EK,
Nice picture!
We had a Cooper's Hawk around our place (near Mooney's Bay) last fall. It hung around terrorizing the local birds and squirrels for a couple of days, then disappeared. I was sorry to see it go. The closest encounter we had with it was when my wife and I were getting in the car. We have a carport, and the hawk landed on the neighbour's fence about 10m away. We sat there watching each other for about 30s, then the hawk flew off. Beautiful.
I have a picture of a possible Cooper's Hawk too. This picture was taken in downtown London, ON in early December of 2004.
βPer
"...hanging out with three crows..."??? That sounds very odd for a hawk (and for crows, which gang up on owls, at least).
How's it going? I think it's either the Cooper's or the sharp-shinned hawk that's so fast it's the original "blue streak" that became a metaphor for speed.
I seldom see hawks close-up in Toronto but once, near the Don Valley, we saw a sparrow hawk in the middle of a residential street mantling protectively over its prey and glaring at our car.
RBH:
I also thought it was odd, but I was wondering if the crows might like to hang around for the leftovers from the hawk's kills.
Mona:
The tail spread and foot sticking out looked like a threat display - it certainly was impressive.
As for us, we are surviving winter, and looking forward to lots of fun stuff at Carleton for the Darwin celebrations next week (see next post).
Wow!
Awesome shot!
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