The wild kingdom plays out across our back yards. Joe Coleman sent this over and since it can be rare to see this, I thought I’d share. It’s all part of the cycle after all. Here’s Joe’s story:
I am just getting around to downloading some photos taken in my backyard on Dec 28 of a Cooper’s Hawk catching an adult squirrel.
I was getting a glass of water at the kitchen sink and looking out the back window when I noticed quite a fight taking place at the base of a holly tree.
Fortunately my camera was in the house so I was able to grab it & start taking photos.
All of the photos are a bit blurry due to the light and the action which was pretty fast paced but they are still pretty impressive.
I remember how skeptical people have been whenever we’d tell stories of Cooper’s Hawks catching squirrels(remember John Drummond’s) – well they do.
After these photos were taken, the hawk, with a great deal of effort and with its wings fully extended, managed to drag the squirrel about 30′ over to some briars where it spent several hours on it.
The other birds and squirrels in the yard came out to visit the feeders during these hours while keeping a careful eye on the hawk.