Ordinary Beauty

This lovely raptor arrived Saturday morning and perched for awhile in the big leaf maple outside our bedroom window (the maple which is so very far yet from having leaves).

In the afternoon, she returned to perch in the cherry tree (and that’s the pink tone you see in the background of the photo). We watched her for about an hour, perching, hunting, swooping. She caught one mouse, but glided into our sliding glass door and dropped it–then retrieved it and flew off again to the cherry tree branch (I never thought I’d have to put WindowAlert decals at the ground-level parts of the door!).

She spent a good bit of time in the cherry tree, blending in splendidly with the color of the bark and having a nice heavy cover of cherry blossoms. The squirrels here are quite used to romping in that cherry tree, and twice a squirrel roamed very near the hawk. Her wings opened and she became extra large, and then swooped.

I am not sure if she was aiming for a squirrel snack, or if she was just discouraging the little mammals.

We were able to see that this hawk is banded. David, owner of Flora and Fauna Books just around the corner from us, had told us about a man who has been banding the Cooper’s hawks in Discovery Park, and so we have been on the lookout for any bands. Our girl today was wearing a blue band on her right leg, marked 5X and a silver band on her left leg.

Oh. And pretty much once she arrived, all the finches and chickadees and juncos and sparrows, made themselves scarce.