![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/coopers-hawk-favorite-perches-2560-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"coopers-hawk-favorite-perches-2560-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\nAnd a bird reflection that I didn’t know was possible.<\/p>\n
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First, I’ll set the stage. It’ll take me a while.<\/p>\n
This is part of my back yard, garden and neighbor’s house. For most of the past year, our neighborhood Cooper’s Hawk would reliably land on my back fence at the precise spot I’ve marked with a yellow “X” to hunt songbirds at my feeders. Those feeders, out of frame to the right and slightly behind me, are along my side yard so from that hunting spot the Coop could survey my entire back yard for potential prey – including my grapevine next to my feeders. For obvious reasons, that grapevine is often loaded with hungry House Sparrows, House Finches, Lesser Gold Finches and Red-winged Blackbirds. And doves, both species, are often scavenging fallen seed beneath the feeder.<\/p>\n
However, for the last month or so, the amaranth I’ve planted against my back fence for privacy have grown so tall (up to 3 1\/2″ a day, I’ve measured) they’d block the view of the Coop if he hunted from his hunting spot on the fence. So, ‘he’ has abandoned that hunting spot and now hunts my back yard from my neighbor’s roof, usually from the spot I’ve marked with a yellow “Y”. From there he has a good view of my feeders. If he was anywhere else on my neighbor’s roof he couldn’t see my feeders because his view of them would be blocked by my storage shed.<\/p>\n
Yesterday morning while I was working in my garden I looked up and noticed the Coop hunting my feeders from the “Y” spot on my neighbor’s roof. My photo gear was in the kitchen so I had to retrieve it but when I returned, he was still there. I didn’t have my tripod and my big lens is too heavy for me to hand hold, so I rested my lens on the end of the green horizontal 2″x2″ at the top of my cucumber trellis at the spot marked by a yellow “Z”.<\/p>\n
OK, the stage is finally set for the photos that follow.<\/p>\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/coopers-hawk-9239-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"coopers-hawk-9239-ron-dudley\\"")
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This was my view as I looked through my lens from “Z” to “Y”. The Coop was strongly side lit from his hunting spot right next to one of my neighbor’s solar panels.<\/p>\n
All of these photos were significantly underexposed in camera, so I had to brighten them during processing.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I was hoping to get some action shots if he went after birds at my feeders but it turned out that I was standing between him and my feeders so that didn’t happen. Eventually, when he decided to fly to my neighbor’s yard and check out his feeders, all I got was a few takeoff and flight shots.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n If I cropped fairly tightly on the bird, I managed to get a single flight shot that didn’t include any of the solar panels. But a vertical composition of this same photo was also interesting because…<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n it included the Coop’s reflection in the solar panels. If nothing else, a photo like this is pretty unusual.<\/p>\n I’d never thought about it before, but I had no idea that solar panels could\/would provide a pretty decent bird reflection. I guess I thought solar panels had enough texture on their surfaces to prevent reflections this clear and crisp.<\/p>\n Maybe someday I’ll get a photo of the Coop in better light where his reflection in a solar panel isn’t partially blocked by vegetation. Given his reliable perching habits, I’m gonna try.<\/p>\n Ron<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" And a bird reflection that I didn’t know was possible. (5 photos)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/coopers-hawk-9240-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"coopers-hawk-9240-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/coopers-hawk-9241-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"coopers-hawk-9241-ron-dudley\\"")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/featheredphotography.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/coopers-hawk-9241-vertical-ron-dudley.jpg\" "\\"coopers-hawk-9241-vertical-ron-dudley\\"")
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