A tale of two hawks

As always, click the photo to enlarge

An adult Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus) sits on a wire in the little village of Limerick, in Jackson County, Ohio. I was here on December 29 to cover my turf for the Beaver Valley Christmas Bird Count, along with BWD (Bird Watcher's Digest) editor Jessica Vaughn. By the way, BWD is a great magazine and if you have an interest in birds, you should subscribe. Not to toot my own horn although I clearly am, but I have an article on Kankakee Sands in northwest Indiana in the current issue. It's a spectacular birding locale and I've written about Kankakee a number of times on this blog. The recent revamp and reissue of the magazine resulted in a physical size increase, which much better showcases the numerous excellent photos featured in each issue.

Anyway, we did well on the count, with 45 species, including two Eastern Phoebes. I find these tough little flycatchers about every three to five years on this count. If the weather gives them half a chance, they'll try to ride out the winter. The bird in the above photo was one of six Red-shouldered Hawks that we found, and it was sitting in clear view of an active feeder behind a church. Despite its presence, the songbirds were not overly deterred from hitting the feeders, although I'm sure they kept a close eye on the raptor. Red-shouldered Hawks routinely visit my yard, with its usually busy feeders. "My" birds react much the same. Activity carries on, the soundscape is awash with the regular calls, birds continue to hit the feeders, and bold little chickadees will fly right by the much larger raptor as it sits on the fence or a low limb of the walnut tree. The comparatively slow and cumbersome hawk would stand little chance of bagging speedy songbirds, and they know it. I must admit, Red-shouldered Hawks have a soft, rather cute appearance that befits their mellow (for a raptor) persona. Chipmunks, mice and shrews beware, though - they form a large part of Red-shouldered Hawks' diets. In warmer seasons, the raptors catch lots of amphibians and reptiles. I imagine my red-shouldered visitors are mostly watching for chipmunks and the occasional Short-tailed Shrew that dashes from cover for spilled seed.

A juvenile Cooper's Hawk perches in my backyard yesterday morning. These bird hunters are near daily visitors, and I often know when they are around without even casting eyes on one. The yard falls silent, and songbirds vanish. They know to take no foolhardy chances with a Cooper's Hawk, whose bread and butter is small birds.

Not who you would want to see looking your way, if you were a cardinal, junco, sparrow or some other little feathered fellow.

I have plenty of dense shrubby cover in the yard and that's where the birds quickly flee when the threat of a Cooper's Hawk appears. Even that won't necessarily stop attacks. On more than one occasion I have seen a hawk run into a shrubby thicket on foot - quite terrifying for the birds hiding within, I am sure!

Sometimes birds get caught unawares and find themselves out in the open when a Cooper's Hawk materializes. They will "sleek" themselves into a compressed posture and not move a muscle, sometimes for minutes. I once watched a Carolina Chickadee - normally in perpetual motion - sit utterly still for minutes as a hawk sat nearby. I imagine Cooper's Hawks are largely triggered by movement, so sitting stone still, even if relatively exposed, might permit survival.

This juvenile was quite "tame" (or naive) and allowed me to approach to about 20 feet without apparent bother. I try to keep the back windows clean for emergency photos, but generally despise shooting through extra glass. But given his (I think it was a male based on small size) youth, I figured I might try an outdoors approach. It worked and he was still sitting on the wire when I went back inside. The close approach allowed clear images of his death-dealing talons. A small bird seized in those clutches is instantly going to be maimed and not much later, dead, its fate to be plucked and eaten.

Some people who feed birds are greatly bothered by the appearance of Cooper's Hawks. I don't know why. They are magnificent animals that emit a highly palpable life force that alters the very dynamics of their surroundings. Their fierce eyes radiate predatory cunning, and the hunter will often twitch with pent up energy as it scans its surroundings, missing nothing. When the time for action arrives, the hawk is a fury of speed and motion, launching and attacking with mind-numbing quickness. It is a pinnacle of avian evolution, a logical acme of a fantastic evolutionary process.