[TN-Bird] A cheeping Cooper's

From: Wallace Coffey <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: 1-A TN-Birds <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sat, 08 Feb 2003 18:51:20 -0400
TN-Birders:

Friday afternoon about 4 p.m. I had an interesting encounter with a Cooper's
Hawk which was hunting from the ground.  It was at the Weir Dam along the
South Fork Holston River in Sullivan Co.

It was dark overcast and almost no one was at the Weir Dam parking lot.
While looking over the usual winter resident waterfowl, I heard a strange
bird call.  It seemed like it might be a songbird of some type but I had no
idea what it was.  

Sort of a cheeping type sound.  I went to search.

Near the road I saw a Cooper's Hawk walking along for some distance at the
edge of the woods on the grass shoulder of the road.  It was carefully
looking around the bases of  trees and in  brush --  now and then creeping
slowly up to a small brushy tangle and sticking its head in to inspect.
Once it turned and looked back at a tangle it had just checked.  It quickly
ran and hopped back to look again. 

The slightly audiable cheeping was coming from the Cooper's Hawk.  It
continued to call while it was moving about but when it searched more
closely it was quiet.

The bird paid almost no attention to me.  I was about 40 feet away in the
parking area.  Eventually it climbed up a fallen tree and looked down into
the tangles.  It then moved to a perch on the outer edge of the trees and
stood in the open for a couple of minutes until a pickup truck flushed it.
It flew across the road and into the woods. 

The driver stopped and ask several questions about the hawk. He was amazed
that I had stood so close to watch the bird.

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN  



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[TN-Bird] A cheeping Cooper's

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