by Andrew Morrison | The Cooper’s Hawk of Strathcona is the next cool thing. The species was the first accipiter I saw when I started my bird list last year (at 205 species so far). The especially memorable thing about the occasion was that I didn’t see it out at Reifl or in the Endowment Lands, but rather hunting from a perch on Union Street in Strathcona. A few weeks later I found the same guy with his mate in a nest on the northeast corner of MacLean Park (midway up the big tree across from The Wilder Snail). They had one eya (hawk baby) in the nest, and for weeks afterwards I spied and heard the Daddy hawk cruising the alleys looking for treats from (the aptly named) Hawks Ave. in the east to Jackson St. in the west. The young fellow in the photo above showed up a month or two later on top of one of the telephone poles in front of my house. I assume it’s the eya on one of his maiden flights. His folks have since picked up sticks for other pastures, but the young fellow – Coop, I call him – is still here, calling harshly for friends and hunting the alleys nearly every day.

THE NEXT COOL THING