The last few weeks we have found our certified wildlife habitat being terrorized by a family of raptors. We find this both amazing and distressful at the same time. Coopers Hawks are beautiful birds and watching this family of four interact in our backyard has been fascinating. Mom and Dad are never far behind and their communication cries can be heard from sun up to sun down. The distress we feel comes from watching our cardinals, blue jays, doves, sparrows, mocking birds, etc. trying to raise their own young under this constant threat. A constant threat that too often comes to fruition.
But honestly if you were the parents of a couple of raptors, what better place to teach them to hunt than a backyard full of happy birds? We are hopeful that mom and dad will be finished with this parenting thing soon and kick these teenagers out to claim their own territory somewhere other than our backyard.
Coopers Hawk sitting over my bird feeder waiting for his/her dinner to appear.
Coopers Hawk stretching.
