Friday, August 24, 2012

Hogshead Cooperhawk Pt.1

It was a beautiful winter morning. The sun had risen in a bright, clear sky. The night before I finished painting the living room, the one with the new bay window, light blue. The blue painter's tarp was still covering the mound of furniture in the middle of the floor when there was a loud, dull thud at the window. 
 
The outer pane of the triple glazed glass was shattered. The deed was probably done by a miscreant teen. I looked closer.

There was a brownish grey lump on the edge of the front porch. A bird. Not an eagle, but a large bird, none the less. 

I ran for the camera and grabbed a quick shot through the door glass. I moved over to the window and the bird had moved. His bell was thoroughly, completely and loudly rung!

The dumb cluck was identified as a Cooper Hawk. common to the mid-Atlantic, they feed exclusively on small birds caught in flight.

In the next days he made his way to and sat in a tree while clearing his head. Then he was gone. Until the next week. He was standing on the front lawn enjoying breakfast. 

For those concerned about the condition of the poor Cooper Hawk, think of the chickadees that reside in the Holly tree just outside the replaced front window.



2 comments:

Frank Baron said...

Yikes! That must have been a nasty wallop.

A blow to your wallet too, eh?

Bruce Robinson said...

It took the bird three or four days to fly off after being chased into a pine tree.

Within weeks, we were finding the fluffy remains of his subsequent meals.

The window cost less than the insurance deductible, so, as they say, "It could've been worse."