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The Cooper's Hawk

Alexandra MacKenzie/flickr

After brunch this Saturday, I was looking out the kitchen window while rinsing some dishes. Perching in a tree overlooking one of our bird feeders was a crow-sized hawk I hadn’t noticed before. From my vantage point, it appeared lightly colored in the front, with dark wings. I turned off the faucet to lean forward and get a closer look, when the hawk swooped into action. It flew toward the feeder, scattering visiting songbirds in all directions. A cardinal took off for the bushes and some house sparrows shot for the forest line.

But one unlucky dove was not quite fast enough to flee to safety. Instead, the hawk grabbed it in midair. In just seconds, the dove was in the hawk’s sharp talons and both were back in the nearby tree branches.

Even practiced birders sometimes aren’t sure which kind of bird this is. But I’ve seen it twice since, and with help from a birding guide and some natural history experts, I have identified it as a Cooper’s hawk.

W. Brooks Paternotte took the helm of Irvine Nature Center as executive director in July 2013 and immediately began building on the strong 35-year foundation. Brooks is a Baltimore native who was a teacher, coach, advisor, dean and Head of the Middle School during his 13 years at Boys’ Latin School in Baltimore. He is also an instructor and ambassador of the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS) and is a Leave No Trace Master, as well as an avid outdoorsman and a features writer for FlyLife Magazine.