![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/coopers-hawk-7715-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"coopers-hawk-7715-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nWhen I’m puttering around in my kitchen I keep my eye out through my windows for interesting bird activity in my garden where I have my bird feeders. Three days ago, on a cloudy early evening, I happened to spot our neighborhood Cooper’s Hawk as ‘he’ was landing on my feeder stand. That time of day my feeders are usually being mobbed by songbirds, mostly House Sparrows, and the Coop was obviously looking for an easy meal.<\/p>\n
He was so intent on looking and listening for panicked sparrows that had flown into my tomato and cucumber plants to escape him, he didn’t even fly off when I opened my patio door so I could photograph him from inside my dining room.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1\/1250, f\/5.6, ISO 800, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n Since he was hunting he was usually looking down. This is one of the few photos that had eye contact.<\/p>\n Not long after this photo was taken he spotted (or heard) a sparrow in one of my tomato plants almost directly below him. So he flew down and chased that sparrow around the tomato plant. The two of them frantically circled the tomato plant twice before the sparrow escaped into my thick grape vines growing on my side fence.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/5.6, ISO 1600, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n When he first returned to his hunting perch he was facing me again but here he’d decided to turn 180\u00b0 on the perch and he was having difficulty maintaining his balance.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2500, f\/5.6, ISO 1600, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n It may look like he’s about to poop but he’s just using his tail to try to keep his balance.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n 1\/2000, f\/5.6, ISO 1600, Canon R5, Canon EF500mm f\/4L IS II USM + 1.4 tc, not baited, set up or called in<\/em><\/p>\n After this last shot was taken he flew to the fence you see in the lower background to hunt from there (no photos of him there because he was mostly behind my sunflowers). I watched as he flew down after a sparrow behind my tomato and amaranth plants. I couldn’t see him back there but I knew he was still there so I quickly took my photo gear outside and sat at my patio table in hopes that he’d make another appearance.<\/p>\n I sat there for nearly five minutes before I realized that he was in plain sight on the ground to the left of my amaranth plants. But he recognized the moment we made eye contact and that spooked him so he flew, with a sparrow in his talons, into one of my Catalpa trees where I couldn’t see him. He apparently ate the rest of the sparrow there because I saw several feathers falling to the ground from his hidden perch. I never saw him again.<\/p>\n I could kick myself for not spotting him earlier while he was still on the ground. He’d been out in the open and in plain sight. And he had prey.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" That time of day my feeders are usually being mobbed by songbirds and the Coop was obviously looking for an easy meal. (4 photos)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/coopers-hawk-7769-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"coopers-hawk-7769-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/coopers-hawk-7836-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"coopers-hawk-7836-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/coopers-hawk-7851-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"coopers-hawk-7851-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n