October 28, 2006

• hawk surprise

   

      Friday afternoon I saw a hawk in the parking lot of my apartment. It was perched on a telephone pole at the end of the garage and I grabbed my spotting scope to identify it as an immature  Cooper's Hawk, as seen in this Google photo. No other North American hawk species has such a long tail. The adult color is completely different, a slate grey back with a darker head & tan marking on chest.

      The hawk suddenly dove off the pole at something in the parking lot, in mid-air it twisted & landed next to a parked car. I didn't see it leave, so it must've flown  in the other direction. Later when  I was leaving for errands, I checked to see if there were any feathers or blood, indicating what it was after. There was nothing on the ground, so either it missed or it was a clean kill which it took elsewhere to eat. I'm guessing it had seen a little sparrow, which frequent the parking lot. Even though I only saw it for a few minutes, it was plenty of time to be awed by it's magnificence.

  • 7:54 pm
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