The Cooper's Hawk and the Squirrel

 I've seen Cooper's hawks harassing squirrels before, but a few weeks ago there was quite a show in our front feeder area!  

This gorgeous bird was hungry!  I was busy doing breakfast dishes when she flew in.  I say, "she," but I'm only guessing because the bird seemed on the large size for Cooper's and as with most raptors, the females are a bit bigger than the males.  We have a feeder right outside the kitchen window (which is on the 2nd floor), so I can really watch what is going on while washing up!  Nice.   

(All of these pictures were taken through the window glass, and many, like this one, with my phone, so quality is iffy sometimes...)

What is she looking at?  She is watching a squirrel on the tree below her.   As you orient yourself with the next picture picture, the hawk is on the branch - her back to us - and the squirrel is on the left side of the tree, down near the ground, but above the bushes.

 

  

 We watched the interactions for the better part of 20 minutes (almost making us late to rehearsal!).  The two critters seemed to be teasing each other.  The squirrel would run around the other side of the tree, run up close, then back down.  The hawk watched and occasionally flew down, circling the tree!

In the next picture, the squirrel is pretty much right below the hawk on the right side, 

but still down near the ground!

 Hmm... Getting guttsy!

 In the next picture, the squirrel is close to the Coop, but one branch down on the left side of the tree... 

We left them here and did get to rehearsal on time! 

   

 

 

Another quick Cooper's Hawk Story (the Cooper's gets lunch): 

 It is well documented that the Coops will dive into a flock of birds around a feeder in hopes that one will turn toward the house and run into a window, thus providing a meal for the Coop.  

 

I was again doing dishes and there was a disruption below, around the feeder.  Suddenly a mourning dove crashed into the window, at my eye level about 3 feet from me!  It had barely bounced off the window when the Coop snatched it out of the air and dove into the bushes for a quiet lunch!  They are very agile birds and remarkable hunters!  That was a pretty amazing 10 seconds of my day!!

 

 A fox:

 Never a dull moment around here!  The pictures below were of another day, with a visit from our resident fox.  We had two that we'd see frequently, both red fox.  This fox but was more beige-ish gray, but still a red fox, and second was more red.  Sadly, we saw a dead red fox on the side of the road on Dutton a few days ago.  Probably "ours".

What a great place to live.  Is it any wonder that I don't complain about doing dishes??