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mating Cooper's Hawks



I've missed seeing the courtship flight of Cooper's Hawks that Rob
Bierrgaard described, but this morning about dawn Esther and I saw a pair
of adults copulating. We had heard and glimpsed a single bird several
mornings in the past week on our morning walks.  Today I took along bins,
and we got a good look at one bird.  A little later, we saw it again, and a
second bird joined it.    The first, carrying prey, flew a short distance
and landed on a bare limb.  The second bird quickly followed and fluttered
over the first.

This happened in the same residential area where Cooper's Hawks mated and
nested last year.  It's an older neighborhood in north Asheville with
mature deciduous trees, white pines, and Norway spruce.  Bent says Cooper's
Hawks are known to use the same nesting area for several years in a row,
and occasionally to reuse a nest.  We'll be watching.


Leonard Pardue, Asheville, NC