Cooper’s Hawk taking a bath: LAPC & SS

About a year ago, I watched this Cooper’s Hawk taking a bath in my backyard. She is a regular visitor but this day was special because she stayed for two hours. We get a lot of songbirds at our water feature and the hawks think of it as their all-you-can-eat-buffet and spa.

On this day, the Cooper’s Hawk taking a bath stood in the chilly water for 40 minutes before perching in a nearby snag. I’ve shown pictures of her preening and fluffing her feathers after her bath in a previous post. She is a gorgeous bird.

As you can tell by my pictures below, this Cooper’s Hawk has a lot of personality!

Coopers hawk taking a bath
Hawk bathing
Hawk bathing
Coopers hawk taking a bath
Read more: Cooper’s Hawk taking a bath: LAPC & SS
Hawk bathing

This is a closer view of her.

Coopers hawk taking a bath

Here’s a short video of the Cooper’s Hawk bathing that I took with a phone attached to my spotting scope. She took such a long and thorough bath.

While working on this post, I looked outside and noticed an immature Cooper’s Hawk perched on my gate. I was expecting a package and the bird did not fly away until the truck backed right up to the gate. The UPS driver apologized for scaring away “my” hawk. 😀

I’m glad they feel so at home here!

Immature Cooper's hawk

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge (LAPC) #183- Memorable Events

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11 thoughts on “Cooper’s Hawk taking a bath: LAPC & SS

  1. Wow, Siobhan! Such beautiful and wild neighbours – you are lucky! Loved the film and where she is spreading her breast feathers like a skirt. Birds of prey are certainly something.

  2. Oh, I love this! I counted dozens on my last two drives, one to Mt St Helens, one to the Oregon coast. I still struggle with ID’s but it’s always so cool to see them. Great video!

  3. That bird is beautiful, how wonderful to have them visit like this! I loved how at the start of the video he was taking sips of water and looking around as if to check no one was watching before he started his bath!

    • Yeah, I see them several times a week. Gorgeous birds! I felt like a bit of a voyeur watching her bathing. 😉

  4. Pingback: Remnants of a Solitary Life: Monochrome Monday - bend branches

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