Monday, April 29, 2013

Silver Ridge Ave: Cooper's Hawk Mocking Me

Photo: Diane Edwardson, April 28, 2013, 5:45 PM.  Yep, that's a Cooper's Hawk.  How do I know?  It knows I only have a cell phone with which to take photos, not a real camera.  Cooper's Hawks are my white whale.  If I've got a camera, they don't show.  (Clicking on photo won't help much.)

Every time I walk Silver Ridge near the (City of Los Angeles Historic Landmark) How House, I hear a Coopers' Hawk distinctive call and a flurry of flapping, as Mourning Doves fly in many directions to confuse the predator who feeds primarily on birds.  I always seem to see the mid-sized hawks sitting atop the telephone poles there. 

The hawk had a small head, long tail with horizontal black & white stripes.  I couldn't get any shots when it took off flying into the dense oak trees nearby, before returning to the top of one of the telephone poles. 

Click here for all our Cooper's Hawk related posts.

Learn more about Cooper's Hawks: Cornell Lab of Ornithology