Last week, I took a nice walk along the riverbank, and visited one of my favorite parks in town, Cosmopolitan Park. This can be a great place to find migrants and other choice species if you get there at the right time of day.
I was there fairly early in the morning, and had actually been there briefly a few days before, and had flushed a lone Cooper's Hawk, while walking one of the trails .
This time, I got very lucky, and caught sight of a Cooper's Hawk that had just caught its prey, and was busy plucking it to eat from an open perch that crossed overhead of me.
While he was busy, a second Cooper's was circling close overhead, so I'm guessing there is a breeding pair in the woods at this park.
I got a couple of photos from this vantage point, then watched the bird fly off to the higher canopy to finish its meal. I wanted to get up to the birds level, so had to scale the steep muddy bank and wedge myself up a tree and stay very still and quiet , while the bird did his thing..
Warning some of these photos are quite graphic !
