Cooper's Hawks: "Nest Building & Lookout Duty"

What are you looking at?

(Cooper’s Hawk - photo by Neil Barker - April 2023)

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A quiet cool morning in the forest, you’re both preparing.

She: making preparations for things to come in the future.

He: preparing to protect and defend that future from harm.

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I took these photos in early April 2023. I was fortunate to watch a mated pair of Cooper’s Hawk gather materials to build their nest. I spotted the male first - he’s the one doing a near 180-degree turn with his head looking back at me in the top photo.

The photo above is the female Cooper’s Hawk. I watched her repeatedly fly to this pine tree and break off small twigs and branches and fly back to their nesting site about 100 yards away in a maple tree. Her male partner from my first photo was about halfway between their nesting site and this pine tree. Perhaps he was acting as lookout for her as this area has several American Crows that lurk nearby.

Here is another photo of her mate surveying the forest. Their nest site is about 50 yards away from where he is perched. The pine tree she was gathering twigs from is about 50 yards back and to the left of him in this photo.

This is that male Cooper’s Hawk still on lookout duty. His mate made at least half a dozen trips back and forth to the pine tree. She eventually flew in a different direction for materials and her mate quickly followed.

Over the course of the Summer and Autumn, I saw several Cooper’s Hawks in the conservation area. Some of them were adults and some were juveniles. I like to think this pair had offspring that I was able to see in the park. This was an awesome encounter with Nature that I appreciate to this day.

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