One of the most appealing things about
bird watching for me is the unexpected and new - no matter how many times you've seen a bird, it can still do something you haven't seen, before. That's yet another reason for every
birder to have that
birding binocular at the ready. I ALWAYS carry a
binocular and it paid off this last Sunday. I was riding my bike though a section of woods when my raptor radar went off and, out of the corner of my eye, I spotted the familiar outline of a Cooper's Hawk, only not up in a tree where I usually see it, but down on the ground, standing in water, of all things, back in the flooded timber. I quickly pulled up my
Leica BL 10x25 binocular and took a closer look. I could see almost every feather on the
hawk, but I observed no evidence of feeding activity in the usual cloud of feathers that erupts when a Cooper's feeds on a songbird. Still, the Coopers did not appear in a hurry to leave - it was obviously intent on something, even to the point of tolerating my nearby presence, but why was it standing in the water? Seeing that I made it nervous, though, I slowly lowered my
binocular and then quietly continued on down the trail, leaving this great hawk to its work, whatever it was. I could research an answer, later.
Happy to say, I found a possible answer on the
Cornell All About Birds website, today. According to the Cornell birding site, this songbird hunter has been known to hold a songbird under water until it ceases to struggle, since the Cooper's, unlike a falcon, does not bite its prey to kill it. That formidable bill on a Coopers' is a feeding tool, not a hunting tool.