Cooper Hawk

Got a fairly early start to shooting yesterday. Was out at Fletcher's Wildlife garden at around 7:30 (boy was it cold). I think I got there a bit early as the birds were not even up yet. I first went to the feeder behind the Info Center and not much was happening. So I tried the feeders out in the open area south of the duck pond. The Chickadees were awake and so were the crows (like when do crows actually sleep). After about 10 minutes or so about 30 House Finches started flying in for breakfast, followed by a couple of Juncos. Not long this was followed by a couple of pairs of Cardinals.

Seeing as I was in the area I decided to try and find the Townsend Solitair. However I did not see it in the Juniper that it normally hangs out in. I did not want to stay too long as it is a residential area.

I next moved out to look for the Grey Partridges that were spotted by the Bell Sensplex. However there was no sign of them either.

So off to my usual standby, Shirley's Bay. There is lots of activity there on any given day. I just wanted to see if anything new had been in the area. After staying there for a bit of time I moved off to March Valley Rd. It was also pretty quiet. But one never knows when something interesting will turn up.

After touring the back roads for a while I decided to see if I could find the Red Shouldered Hawk that was seen off of Carp Road. Apparently a couple of regular birders had the same idea. So we got chatting for a bit and off in the woods we could hear a raptor call. We went looking for it from the road but to no avail. Suddenly out of nowhere a small Cooper's Hawk flew into a tree just close to where we were. Apparently he has been around people before, as he graced us with his/her presence for about 45 minutes. I have to say this was my first siting of a Cooper's Hawk and I was thinking they were bigger. However they make up for their smaller size by their attractive plumage. I have some other photographs of the Cooper's Hawk on my website www.mtcmediaproductions.com

All in all it was well worth taking a trip out to the area as there are lots of other birds to see and deer by the gazillion. Well maybe not that many but lots.