I had a nice day on Thanksgiving at my sister's place in suburban Chicago. She has a wonderful garden and they love to feed the birds. I hadn't been there 5 minutes when I saw a Cooper's hawk strafe the bird feeders. (I had seen this same bird earlier this year and it was a Cooper - it is large even for a Cooper.)
Later in the afternoon, I noticed a sparrow doing a peculiar kick below the feeder. Only one bird does that and I have seen it many times. It was a Fox Sparrow and a beauty - all reddish brown and heavily streaked.
Today, I was feeling a little deprived for not having done more birding this last week, but with our busy season upon us, I had to take care of business first. Just when I was feeling a little sorry for myself, my two resident raptors decided to make an appearance. The Red-tailed (I have since named him Clancy) showed up first, but did not make a kill, and moved on to the other areas of the airport. The Kestrel showed up a bit later, but had better luck. I watched her catch a rat and then fly up on a utility pole to devour it. No sooner had she disappeared, than a Cooper's rocketed through the parking lot and then was gone.
All in all, not a bad couple of days.
