Earlier today I went out to retrieve the trash can and put out bird seed. It occurred to me that the normal bird noises were noticeably absent. Suddenly there was a whoosh from the brush nearby and little birds scattered out of the brush in a panic. The creator of the original noise whooshed away but I caught enough of a glimpse to be fairly sure I had a Cooper's hawk as a visitor. Later as I was preparing to come in and little birds began to twitter again (but not appear), the hawk came back. This time he stayed awhile, and I was able to capture this shot of him:
I'd really rather get closer shots, but considering how high he was in the tree, this shot will have to do. It was handheld at 18x magnification, so it turned out better than I had any right to expect. As an example of what I would rather do, here's a great egret from my coastal trip in January.
Big birds a Chincoteague NWR are sometimes very cooperative.
