Tonight while we were grilling out on the back patio a large winged visitor flew over the pool and perched on the fence. Then within seconds it flew off straight to the chicken pen headed straight-on for a full attack – and was quickly met by fencing around the pen.
Then the winged wonder sat on top of the coop/pen and pondered what had just happened.
According to David Sibley….. and my best guess … it’s a Cooper’s Hawk. Probably a juvenile in its first year.
Now for the educational part of the post….
Cooper’s Hawks are found in and at the edges of mixed or coniferous forests, hunting medium-size birds in ambush attacks through dense cover. (really? I wouldn’t consider our larger size chickens as “medium-size” birds — must have been a hungry hawk!
That pretty much describes what happened tonight.
I’m really glad that I didn’t have the chickens in the yard (free-range) this evening. It might not have been a pretty sight.