22 August 08
Cooper's Hawk
Cooper’s hawks are accipiters, which means their main prey items are birds. Songbirds. Their long tails and short wings are ideal for blasting through wooded thickets, chasing down any passerine foolish enough to linger.
This young one, though, is trying its luck on the ground squirrels. It loses the element of surprise because it has to come out into the open to get them, and they disappear down holes fast (and loudly warn all their companions of the danger.) Empty talons this time…
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I’m so glad it was going for ground squirrels; I hate to see songbirds being eaten (I accept it, but I don’t like it nonetheless).