Am gifted with the delight of having my local neighborhood Cooper's Hawk selecting a nesting site right outside my bedroom window. Not exactly easy viewing but readily viewed. It selected a site at the up in a tree where the trunk splits into three branches straight up. It has been furiously flying tree to tree breaking of - first smaller sticks - and then larger sticks. Fascinating watching the process of selecting the sticks and how the variously sized sticks are broken free. For the larger, it uses its entire body for leverage and swings nearly upside down, tail and wings extended. It seems like it is expecting the sticks to snap off and when they don't, it gives it another couple of tries and flies to a another branch to reconnoiter what to do next. There has been a lot of flying up and down, swooping into the nest site for a moment or two of placement and then more swooping about. The more material that gets places, the longer it takes to set the next stick, then a quick placement of a couple and then a longer stay at the nest apparently for construction or engineering detail. I can't see into the nest itself from my window but have a upward angle view that lets me see most of the bird as it works.
Fascinating. And no good camera to document. Bummer. When is my birthday, anyway? I guess the birds at my feeders will need to be a bit more wary in the future. Thomas Maiello Angel Environmental Management, Inc. Maple Grove, MN
