A Hawk in the Bush

This Friday Joan and I set out to take a walk in the unseasonable February sunshine. A few steps from our front door, Joan spotted a Cooper's hawk sitting in a tree next to the house across the street. We admired his or her plumage through our binoculars, and slowly walked closer to him, a few steps at a time, down our driveway.

He launched from the tree and plunged into the bushes in front of the neighbor's house. Clearly he was hunting something he had seen or heard, and probed on foot for his prey.

This day his hunt wasn't successful. To get a better vantage point, he flew to the top of the low juniper bush visible on the far right of the above picture. We continued to approach, and the hawk was unfazed. This was clearly a suburban hawk! Joan and I came as close as the near sidewalk to him.

With a more severe cropping of this photo, you can see a chartreuse band of tissue where his beak meets his head. Also, the pupil of the eye in the sunshine has contracted, and the pupil in the shade has not.

After meditating on the scene, unblinking, for several minutes the hawk flew off. We were thrilled at the serendipitous timing of our neighborhood walk!