Who was Cooper anyway?

As I sauntered down to the pond this foggy morning, a large bird took off from the top of one of the dead trees that, courtesy of Sandy, now fringe the western side of the water. On a hunch that this was a raptor, I followed the bird to the mouth of the pond where it was sitting quietly on a cross-branch. Except for its staring yellow eye, the bird showed every sign of being a large (hence female) accipter: gray-blue back, striped tail with white edging at the tip, a large white puffy undertail, a slight touch of white on the hackles at the back of the head giving a kind of subtle crest effect and making the head look square. And, as I noted when the bird finally took off, reddish horizontal striping on the breast.

The bird was surprisingly tame as I approached it, slowly making my way almost underneath its high perch. It was facing away from me but was following my movements by rotating its head more than 45 degrees in both directions. It accomplished these owl-like head turns without moving its body in the slightest,  a character that nailed the ID as a Cooper's Hawk (Sharp-shinned Hawk has to twist its body or lower its shoulder to perform this maneouvre).

As can be imagined, not much else appeared in the vicinity while this hawk was in position. However, at one point, a single Cedar Waxwing came in to a nearby treetop (the first I've seen of this bird in a while), surveyed the situation and then quickly took off at high speed in the opposite direction from where the hawk was facing!

The Hairy Woodpecker was back as were a few warblers (Common Yellowthroat, American Redstart, Black-and-white); otherwise things were fairly quiet. A strong cold wave should change all that.

Eric Salzman