2013-2-12 - Adult male Cooper's Hawk dining on a Common Grackle. Watched him swoop down to the ground and lift it up to the tre

2013-2-12 - Adult male Cooper's Hawk dining on a Common Grackle. Watched him swoop down to the ground and lift it up to the tree. He was eating at it for at least two hours, after which time I stopped checking on him. For full story (see description) For the past couple of weeks I've been watching a flock of Blackbirds congregate at dusk across the street in the tallest Oaks. Since I first noticed them, the flock has slowly increased in size. I find myself wondering where they'll be staying this Summer. Maybe soon the flock will get smaller and smaller, or maybe one day they'll just pick up their luggage and move to wherever it is they need to be.

Most of the birds are Common Grackles, but there are Starlings, Red-winged Blackbirds, Brown-headed Cowbirds, and who knows what else mixed in the flock.

In the colder weather it's not unusual to see these flocks gather and sometimes, if we're in the right spot at the right time, we can watch huge flocks, some nearing a million birds, fly overhead in the twilight. It's not uncommon to see these congregations this time of year and most of us take notice, marvel appreciatively, and then move on with our lives.

https://w3.dstutz.com/~karen/g1/cloud-of-grackles

Yesterday I had the privilege of witnessing the demise of a Common Grackle by a raptor. The predator was an adult male Cooper's Hawk. I had followed Kevin outside and just after he went in I saw what I thought might be a smallish hawk come down from the trees across the street and land on the ground, whereupon there was a short-lived flutter of wings and within a few seconds it lifted up into a Callery Pear.

Callery Pear blossom
https://w3.dstutz.com/~karen/g1/white-ish-wildflowers/acw
Callery Pear in bloom
https://w3.dstutz.com/~karen/g1/callery-bradford-pear/aae
probable Bradford Pear
https://w3.dstutz.com/~karen/g1/callery-bradford-pear/aac

The raptor was carrying something in its talons and after a few flits from one limb to another it finally found a suitable perch. I was afraid that if I moved to go inside to fetch binoculars and camera it might fly off so I stayed and looked, bare-eyed, for as long as I could stand it. Knowing, after a certain time, that I wasn't going to be able to confirm either bird for sure without my tools, I decided to go in. The hawk was still there when I came out again and soon the identity of both birds became known.

Here is a picture, not very good, but enough to reinforce the memory of an otherwise bland and not-too-cold Winter afternoon. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, on the left you'll see the rounded corners of the tail, one of the field marks for a Cooper's, in the middle is the Cooper's' dark cap, and on the right is a profile:

https://w3.dstutz.com/~karen/g1/Balcony-Birds/agg
and here is another view before the Grackle became, um, disheveled:
https://w3.dstutz.com/~karen/g1/Balcony-Birds/agh

For comparison, here is a female Sharp-shinned Hawk eating a Mourning Dove. The tail of the SS Hawk is square, a field mark for Sharpies. The female Sharpie and the male Cooper's are close in size and often are difficult to tell apart when sitting in a tree.

https://w3.dstutz.com/~karen/g1/adult-female-sharp-shinned-hawk-2-13-2011-FPA/aai