We live in a neighborhood in Lexington that is frequented by coops, they
have nested in big trees on our street several times, and our
experiences have not been that different from yours. They do seem to
totally focus on prey and are pretty unconcerned about our presence. I
have had one pick a finch off the deck about 5 feet in front of where I
was sitting at a table. They often hunt the deck where we have feeders
and sometimes just perch on top (on this deck 8' off the floor) and hang
out for a while. Needless to say the songbirds make themselves scarce.
My husband was sitting at the same table recently when a coop came from
behind him, barely missing a dove on the deck. The coop executed a
breathtakingly quick hairpin turn, flew directly at George, and did not
put on the brakes until it reached the edge of the table umbrella. With
another even more breathtaking turn, it went to the top of the deck
rail and just puttered for a while, master of all it saw. George was
still trying to get his breath back.
Judy Lundquist
Lexington
