At 2 PM, my wife and I started to leave the Ithaca Commons via the alley located next to the Home Dairy building when an accipiter flew towards us through the alley and landed on the Home Dairy sign that arches across the alley entrance. It perched for several minutes, fluffed up against the bitter cold, but quite content to be observed by us and a few other folks from very close range (about 10 feet). Eventually it flew back down the alley, landing for a few moments on the ground in the passage way, before veering off to the left (east) at the far end. Recalling that a sharpie had been seen in this area during at least one recent winter and thinking that it looked pretty small for a Cooper's hawk, I at first thought that it was a large female of the former species. But after studying it for awhile, we concluded that, on the basis of the sharp contrast between the dark cap and the much paler nape of the neck, it was almost certainly a small male COOPER'S HAWK. If anyone else has observed a small accipiter in that area recently and come to a different conclusion, feel free to chime in. In any case, it was a real treat to see the bird so close for so long-certainly our closest look ever at an accipiter.
Lindsay Goodloe -- Cayugabirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/CayugabirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/cayugabirds-l@cornell.edu/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/Cayugabirds 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/CAYU.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
