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Posted by Justin Miller on 10:45:37 10/22/13
Interesting scene this past Sunday...I was inside my house on my computer loading photos, and had just put out seed in all my feeders - I have mentioned in the past I have a cooper's hawk who has been 'hunting' my yard for a few years now as he knows there are a lot of birds coming to the feeders. I get quite a few doves - collared, mourning, and white winged, usually in the dozens...and they are a favorite target of the hawk.
So I happen to be looking out into the yard through the sliding glass doors (nearly the entire east wall of my house is sliding doors)and see the hawk appear from the black olive that towers over the back of my yard...dropping down fast on the area where the doves feed. As I'm watching, I see a collared dove heading straight over the pool, about 4 feet off the deck, and right behind him is the hawk. The dove made a last minute turn just before getting to my sliding door, but I have a big awning that extends out and he was well under it - his only choice was to turn left, which he couldn't quite do in time...WHACK! The dove hit the window a bit sideways while trying to turn (my windows and doors are tinted and have stickers so birds don't hit them)- leaving a nice, greasy stain and a few feathers in a spot - but he did manage to keep flying off to the left, while the hawk seemed to be so busy trying to get the dove that he also didn't slow down in time, and WHACK! The hawk smacked the sliding door, talons first, then wings, as he scurried off after the dove, still just a foot or so behind him and chasing hard.
I went outside to check up on the scene, and found the hawk back up in the black olive tree, no dove in its talons...so it appears that dove got away, maybe a little stunned with some feathers missing but it didn't seem to break any important bones. The hawk was no worse for wear, and continued his silent perch waiting for all the birds to slowly come back to the feeders to try again.
Monday afternoon when I got back from work, I found a pile of mourning dove feathers covering the lawn under the black olive tree...so the hawk scored again to make up for his miss the day before.
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