Well, I'm not sure what's up with my Coopers. Two birds still seem to be around, but it's pretty quiet. One was sunning itself on the back patio about half an hour ago, and there was one sitting in a dead tree at about 6:00 this morning. Sitting exposed in a dead tree gets you a guard; there's a roster and different species take their turn. Last night was the turn of a flicker (it looked young, but the perch is over 100 feet away), first of those I've seen this summer. On Tuesday the male flew in with prey in the evening and sat in the dead trees (there are two) for about an hour and a half, and no one called out. One Sunday I say a large bird in juvenile plumage perched in the distant dead tree for about 2 hours, and I got excited, but it's been so quiet. No chick calls, no female coming in when dinner's delivered. So I don't really know if there are any babies this year. Early I heard a chain saw in the direction of the nest--I hope no one was cutting the wrong tree. But there was a nest earlier this summer (and I don't have a current report) on/near Sorauren Avenue. Those birds can presumably hunt High Park as I believe "my" birds do, so maybe there's a bit of competition.
We've also had some very small, slim, brown, unmarked birds around. There is a kind of buzzy trill when these birds are present. I thought chipping sparrows, because my first impression of these birds in the neighbourhood is small size (the buzzy trill does not sound like chipping sparrow territorial trill, which ended about June; it does not sound like cedar waxwing buzz; it does not sound like goldfinch perchicoree). There is also an immature cardinal, red, following its red parent, and there are house sparrows.
