It’s been a few years since we had a Coopers Hawk visiting our backyard regularly. She was an older female who we would see quite frequently throughout the year. It was always a welcome appearance for us, simply because she was such a stunning looker…but the other backyard birds didn’t feel the same way.
You see, Coopers are the medium sized member of the Accipiter family of hawks. The Sharp Shinned hawk would be the smallest and the Goshawk the largest of the three. All our bird hunting specialists, and the Coopers in particular loves to hang around bird feeders for the obvious reason. Lunch.
Anyway, it’s been quite awhile since we saw this old female and I had assumed maybe something had happened to her. But given some time, nature has a way of filling the void, and so just the other day we spied this handsome male in the backyard. He had just had breakfast (of something feathered) and was pretty content to bask in the sun, preen a bit, and get all tidied up for the day ahead.
After about 20 minutes he decided to take off, and was gone in a flash…but it was good to spend some time with him while we had the chance.