| Cooper's Hawk | January 2005 |
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The following two photos aren't among my better ones; however, I was struck by the coincidence of a Cooper's hawk showing up at the residential area Coopers Pond, in State College, Pennsylvania.
I first noticed this hawk when he landed next to the tree trunk where there are two bird feeders. He looked enormous on the ground! In semitechnical language, he was about the size of a large crow. Two days later, Sue noticed him flying around the tree, and shortly afterward, she spotted him high in a nearby tree. About 70 feet away and in the center of the tree, he was obscured by branches which made focusing difficult. From indoors, I had to shoot upward at a sharp angle, which meant that glass distortion from the window was an unhappy factor.
Naturally, he wasn't around for seed; the Cooper's hawk takes the term bird feeder very literally.
The identifying characteristics of a Cooper's hawk are the broad bands and the rounded, white edge of its tail.
In the second photo, the rounded edge is clearer. The Cooper's hawk is very similar to the sharp-shinned hawk, which has a squarish end to its tail.
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| Photo note: I used a Pentax *istD, with the SMC-A* 300mm lens for these photos. | ||