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Posted by Justin Miller on 10:52:16 05/28/14
In Reply to: cats and coopers part1 (with the grace of the moderator) posted by kurt d.
That's the tally at my house over the past few years. I'm sure the cooper's has caught more than I've witnessed - he's a regular in my backyard, where he knows there are feeders and lots of prey, and comes through roughly 3-4 times each afternoon/early evening that I've been there to see. But I'm not there to track him on weekdays, or if I'm away for a weekend. He misses often - coming in low over the roof of my house from the front yard, usually spotted by some alert blue jay in a nearby tree who calls instant alert and all the grackles, doves, and jays scatter in all directions...the cooper's comes down right off the deck, over the feeder, and swoops after one of the doves usually, but mostly misses and perches in the black olive tree behind my wall...sits for a while looking frustrated, while a hundred blue jays gather on all nearby branches to scream their heads off at him, until he finally flies off a few minutes later...only to come back around 30 minutes later for another go once the birds have gathered again. Maybe 1 in 100 swoops I've witnessed, he gets one...mostly doves, only 2 blue jays out of 12 kills, all the rest being doves. He sits in the black olive tree and pulls them apart, defeathering and eating right there.
The reason my cat has 0 kills? I keep him indoors.
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