The hag Coopers that is. I am a LITTLE tired of her. She doesn't take too many pigeons, and the ones she takes are probably not my best (though if any of my occasional flying pouter discussion group are reading, several half pouters of the bulky Spanish kind have so far outflown her), but she keeps them stirred up and nervous, and that's not really good at the beginning of the breeding season. Also, she goes right inside the loft, kills and eats a pigeon, and sits there staring at you. I
like predators, but she's a little presumptuous.
So this time, we decided to take her five miles south and a couple of hundred feet higher into Hop Canyon, which rises up into the peaks of the Magdalenas. It is a lush riparian canyon and also hosts an affluent subdivision where people feed birds. Finally, I believe her nest site is at the mouth of that canyon, and as it is almost courting season I'm hoping she'll hang up there even if she's heading back to my loft.
In sequence below: She bit me! This better be your last time; Ready; Go! Gone...
As you can see. not even a good point and shoot, swung as fast as I could, can catch an angry Accip.
4 comments:
I wonder if that is the same Coopers that has been hanging around my house (Kelly Rd near the church house) the past 2-3 winters. The last time I saw it was about 18th or so. It would swoop from east to west along the south fence and nail small birds hanging about. Terrorizing the chickens in the meantime.
The web link below is used to archive some photos, and has a pix of it on the fence 6ft outside my living room window. It just finished a kill and was resting. Taken 2011 – it is the first pix on the scrolling images here: http://magdalena.shutterfly.com/
Now that the coopers is gone, it has been replaced by a pair of young red tails (?) and the attack on my chickens last Sun. was a major fail. I made a quick and dirty web page with a couple photos here for friends: http://www.informedcynic.com/birds.html Do you think this is a young red tail? Or possibly a ferruginous?
I wonder if that is the same Coopers that has been hanging around these past 3 winters and lunching on small birds in my yard on Kelly Rd near the church house. I haven’t noticed it for 5-6 days or so.
http://magdalena.shutterfly.com/209 here is a shot of it taken in 2011 right after lunch. About 6ft outside my living room window. ( I set up a blind, it came by so often, around 11am)
The coopers has been replaced by a pair of what might be young red tails. It made a pass on one of my chickens last Sunday and ended up a major fail fortunately. I made a quick and dirty web page for friends: http://www.informedcynic.com/birds.html Do you think this is a red tail, or possibly a ferruginous??
Once it was on the power pole, I noticed something swooping at ground level east to west between myself and the church. At first I thought it was the Coopers. Went inside and put on a telephoto and on inspection it was another red tail. Apparently there has been a pair hanging around Hop Canyon recently, and east of Magdalena.
James: first is a different Coop- first year plumage and I think from his lighter build a male. Others definitely young redtails. Ferrugs very big, usually very white, and much shyer-- in 30 plus years I have never seen one inside town.
They are building a house next to ours and the other day the guys roofing it and I were watching my Iranian Highflyers. They actually went up really high except for one lazy low flyer. Well a Coops came in and caught it right over top of the roofers, showering them with pigeon feathers. Pretty funny I guess...
Post a Comment