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!
This is a closer view of her.
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!
Wonderful that you have such beautiful neighbours, and I love that intense look on her face!
Yes, we’re lucky to see them so often! 🙂
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.
Thanks, Ann-Christine! Yes, she is a neighborhood beauty. 🙂
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!
Thanks, Bonnie! Yes, there are lots of raptors out and about and they can be really
tough to ID.
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. 😉
Rad!
Yes, it was!
Pingback: Remnants of a Solitary Life: Monochrome Monday - bend branches