[EBB Sightings] Christmas confrontation

Hi all.
  Yesterday morning, before the presents were
opened--or anyone else in the house was up--I watched
an interesting exchange between a juvenile Cooper's
hawk and a squirrel in our backyard walnut tree. A
number of times the Coop flew at the squirrel, but
never made contact. I don't know if it was all the
branches and twigs in the way, inexperience on the
hawk's part or both. Once the squirrel went up the
same limb the hawk was on--and got pretty close. I
almost wondered if the squirrel was teasing, but it
wasn't chattering or twitching its tail. It didn't
seem all that concerned by the hawk (of course, it did
get out to the way when it pounced), but went about
its foraging business in the tree as usual. Finally
after one more failed lunge, the Coop left. I did find
myself wondering if it knew how it was going to handle
its prey if it caught it--the squirrel seemed larger
than the pigeons I've seen hawks chase around here.
Happy Christmas and New Years.
Alan Howe
Oakland


		
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