I have a couple of good raptor hunting stories. The first involved a
Cooper's Hawk and a rabbit. While driving a logging road in the Coast
Range I came around a corner to come face to face with a Coop atop a
struggling rabbit in the road. The hawk lifted off with the rabbit but
couldn't gain any altitude and dropped the bunny which landed on my car.
It rolled off the hood and I may have clipped it with my rear tire. I
drove on about 100 yards and stopped and watched the Coop return to mantle
over the now motionless bunny. It's not likely the hawk used my vehicle
knowingly to dispatch the rabbit but it's fun to think so anyway.
The second took place several springs ago at Malheur HQ. While standing
beneath one of the evergreens a live bat fell at my feet. A Great Horned
Owl was perched above. Apparently this owl had learned to specialize in
capturing bats as there were numerous disembodied bat wings strewn about
the ground beneath the trees there. Apparently it dropped the bat that
fell. The bat wasn't very pleased as can be seen in this photo:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/77323634@N00/27767434020/in/album-72157631753996944/
Mark Nikas
On Sat, Dec 14, 2019 at 6:06 AM Lars Norgren <larspernorgren@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
Doug Robinson told me Goshawks are scarce in the Coast Range because they
hunt a lot on the ground, and underbrush is a huge deterrent. I grew up
thinking of Accipiters as designed for tight turns on the wing chasing prey
through stems and branches. But those short wings and long counterbalancing
tail are highly reminiscent of a Towhee.
My father was doing a consultation on land in Marion County when a
pheasant flew by a few feet off the ground. It was followed by a Cooper's
Hawk. The pheasant entered a blackberry patch on the wing. The hawk landed
and walked in. My father heard a struggle and never saw either bird come
back into the open. A pheasant is nearly three times heavier than a
Cooper's Hawk. I know my father could distinguish Cooper's from Gos.
Last year on the regular weekly bird song walk at Sellwood
Park/Oaks Bottom we were standing in the parking lot finishing the day's
checklist when l saw something fall straight to the ground in the middle of
an oak about to leaf out. The object on the bark dust beside the sidewalk
turned out to be an immature Cooper's on top of a Flicker. The hawk was
holding the woodpecker from the back and the struggle appeared a very equal
match. After several minutes someone parked their car a few feet away and
got out. The hawk didn't flee, but seemed to take the precaution of rising
off the ground and getting under a shrub, also not leafed out. It seems
like the struggle lasted ten minutes and the flicker eventually escaped.
Far from being an inspiring National Geographic moment where Cheetah has
gazelle for lunch, it was as gruesome an experience as l can recall in six
decades of outdoor activities.
