Date: Mon, 30 Jun 2003 15:11:54 -0400 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "Lovelace, Glen" Subject: Cooper's Hawk sounds?? Comments: To: DE-Birds MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Hello All, I have observed a Cooper's Hawk around the farm at Oak Grove several times in the past 6 weeks or so. It started with a raid on the starling flock in the farmyard on 5/18. I saw the bird soaring the next day. A few days later, there was a second raid on the starlings. Then a flyover on 6/15. These sightings led me to believe that a nest, if there was one, was located in the woods on the neighboring farm to the west. Seemingly unrelated, I heard this very strange noise coming from woods on the next farm to the north. For lack of a better comparison, it sounded like the strident call of a squirrel only much hoarser. Nothing that I had ever heard before. Then yesterday morning, I heard the same noise again. This time, the Cooper's Hawk emerged from the same woods and flew off to the northeast. I started reorienting the previous sightings and realized that this new location could easily be the center point of all but the soaring observation. In the raids on the farmyard, the bird seems to have used the late afternoon sun as cover for its approach. But what was that strange noise? Could it be young begging for food? In a bit of internet research, I found several sites that described various calls, but only a couple that mentioned a 'wail' and one that mentioned a 'begging shriek' given by the young. Has anyone else out there had experience with a Cooper's Hawk nest? If this is the call of young birds is that good enough to justify a 'NY' confirmation code? Thank you in advance for your input, Glen Lovelace III Seaford, DE ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================