Morning Hawk!

I am definitely ready for a few days of holiday. Maybe it will give me a chance to get some Christmas decorations up!

A couple days ago, I came down to the kitchen to start breakfast and saw a hawk sitting on the fence between my house and a neighbor's house. This was only a few feet from my back door, so I couldn't very well go out that way. I also didn't think I could sneak up on the hawk if I went out the front door and around. So I opted to take a few shots through (admittedly less than clean) window glass.

I've decided based on its size, that it is a Cooper's Hawk -- a pretty common hawk around here. My other thought was a Sharp-Shinned Hawk, but I think that one would have been smaller. The hawk appear to be doing 'calisthenics' -- stretching a leg, opening and closing the claws, etc. Possibly the leg is hurt and healing..or maybe hawks are just like people -- needing to stretch in the morning!





This is when he "saw" me -- he didn't wait around too long after that before he flew away.