Editor,
I had a rather remarkable experience on Wednesday morning, April 18.
While sitting in the living room having coffee with our border collie Maisie Lou, a sudden, loud noise occurred and as I looked at the picture window I realized that a bird had struck it at what must have been a pretty extreme velocity for it to make such a horrendous noise. I put my coffee down and went to look out the window to see if anything was there.
On the ground lay what at first looked like a Whiskey Jack, all haphazardly positioned. I noted the beak still moving a bit and the upper torso likewise, so I went to take a closer look. I put on a pair of work gloves and when I got to where the bird lay, I could see it was still alive and also that it wasn’t a Whisky Jack but a small hawk.
I picked it up gently, brought it back in the house and sat down in the living room to observe it further. It was a Cooper’s Hawk.
It still didn’t appear to be fully conscious but was obviously alive so I just held it and talked gently to it while softly stroking it around the head and chest.
Eventually it began to regain more and more of its composure but before that point I thought maybe I ought to take a photo or two of it just in case it suddenly expired.
The bird kept improving and I kept taking photos up until the point where it actually flapped its wings a couple of times. I figured then it was ready to fly, so I took it and my camera outside, all the while holding the bird securely. After a few more photos, I let go of its legs.
When I released it from my grasp, instead of flying, it just stood up on my hand, curled its claws around my fingers and proceeded to look about.
It didn’t appear to be in any hurry to fly away so I continued walking around the driveway, taking more photos. It remained perched on my hand, seemingly quite content to be there.
Eventually I got close to the chicken coop, and after a few more photos plus a large raven circling overhead seemingly calling out to it, the hawk gently left my hand and swooped down gracefully through the open gate into the fenced chicken coop area (there were no chickens in the coop).
All in all, I must have spent a good half hour or more with the bird before it flew away on its own.
A couple of days later, my wife saw it flying across the yard again so it definitely survived.
It was quite a thrill and an honour to have had such a fine photo op with a Cooper’s Hawk.
Arthur Topham
Cottonwood, B.C.