Chicken Hawk in the Garden

Of course she first showed up the day AFTER the Christmas Bird Count, the Cooper's Hawk. Then she came back today, two days later. Maybe it was a good thing, because that way I had the free time to borrow my son's camera, which had been left without an occupation for a few hours while he was off on a wild salmon chase, and got to focus refreshingly on a single bird instead of the thousands of a couple days before.  We usually see one tormenting the feeder birds every year, and getting tormented by the crows.  But this one seems special.

She is a first-year bird, full of naivete about the dangers of urban gardens. A crisply pin-striped breast reveals her youth, as well as her total trust in my presence.  So focused she was on the tantalizing seed-crazed sparrows and juncos busily flitting about the garden feeder, that she allowed my approach to within 3 meters, while I clicked away with the miracle of modern technology that is a digital camera.  The camera did all the work, all I had to do was point and click. Evan's Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM  makes it look like I knew what I was doing, but the reality is it was the camera, and a very cooperative bird.


Hawks and owls have no teeth to grind their food and so swallow their prey in chunks or whole, skin, feathers, fur and all. They deal with the indigestible parts by producing usually compact "pellets" that they hack up at a later time. When I saw her neck begin to arch -- I knew something was about to happen. What a graceful bird!