Coopers Hawk hunting my yard.

[Napper]

Just before 11:00 this morning I was on the deck and noticed how quiet everything was at the feeder. Two houses down a Hawk landed in a tree which was hidden from view because of a large spruce tree.Was it going to make an attempt on the partially hidden Dove  perched on our kitchen window ledge?

Minutes passed  when the Coopers hawk launched,  passed my neighbours house then flew past my kitchen window in very close proximity, passed over me as it cleared our Metal Gazebo frame. The Dove didn't move and inch. It all happened very quickly.

Napper:) Even if I had my camera in hand I would have most likely missed the approach and the departure.

[Charline]

Very nice sighting in your backyard!

[Dr. John]

Cool sighting. In an interesting coincidence, at about 10:00 this morning, a Cooper’s hawk hung out around our backyard bird feeder. The squirrels were unimpressed and eventually challenged it. It then moved to the gazebo frame in our neighbours’ yard. I got a few shots, but I am not on a photo sharing site to post them.

[Napper]

You can add images to threads  on this site.

look below at "attachments and other items", browse for your file and add attachment max image size is  2032KB
Image will appear in your thread like this.
This is cropped and resized to 800 X 600 saved at 2000 kb. Original file size was 25000 kb

[Dr. John]

Ah, I did not realize that.  For years, I thought the only way to add photos was to have them hosted on a site like Flickr.  Maybe I will add photos in the future - I am no great photographer, like some here, but sometimes it is nice to show people what I saw.

[Dr. John]

OK, finally trying to post my first image (of the Cooper's hawk mentioned above).  I am doing this mainly to share what I saw.  Again, I am not the skilled photographer that the rest of you are (I barely understand half the functions on my camera).

[Shortsighted]

Well done.  Just look at those eyes!  Apparently you know the right half of your camera's controls, probably because you are right-handed.  I can't wait until you figure out the left half.  Heavy machinery in the backyard, or just steel sculpture?  Don't tell me, you bolted all those girders together for a hawk perch.  What an engineer!

My neighbour gave me a mug that said "Engineer" because I designed a pair of speakers for him (now being built) and he keeps referring to me as his personal audio engineer.  The mug defines engineer as:  someone who does precision guesswork using dubious data obtained from unreliable sources.  As I see it, that Coopers hawk is there to do an inspection ... ah, those eyes, they see everything.  Once again, well done!

[Dr. John]

Aside from focus, aperture, and shutter speed, I don't do much else (I let my camera choose the ISO for the most part).

The metal structure is in the neighbour's yard and is the frame for a gazebo.

[Napper]

That is a spectacular image! How close were you to this bird?
Looks to be an adult Male Coopers Hawk, Red eyes and breast colours is an indicator. Younger birds have yellow eyes and more brown mottling "if that is a word" on the breast.


I spotted a couple of Coopers Hawks last week soaring very close to one another above our street here in Milton.
Napper

[Dr. John]

Thanks. It was about 15-20 feet away. It’s pretty used to humans and didn’t flinch when I opened the back door to take a picture.