Cooper's Hawk

This is why I started my blog.  I knew I would have an opportunity to see some interesting things from my backyard.  This evening, I was standing at my back fence and a hawk caught my eye in the woods out maybe 30 yards.  I've seen a Red-tailed Hawk around but looking closely I saw the tail.  I knew I had either a Cooper's Hawk or Sharp-shinned Hawk.  Very similar but the tail is one way to tell them apart.  Here is what I saw initially...

 

Then it moved and I was able to get a clearer view and saw the size of the head and the shape of the tail...

 



 

Then it flew toward me which caught me by surprise.  It landed on a dead tree maybe 20 feet away from me.  It had its eye on something.  Here's what I was able to capture...

 

Here's a cropped photo that's auto-corrected

 

 

For more fun, here's a "touched up" image using an app I have...

 

 

 

Then it flew along the woods and turned sharply back into the woods and down near the ground.  I could see some movement...a small bird.  I also saw a Northern Cardinal in a thicket likely taking cover.  It flew closer to me but still near the ground (images not so great)...

 

 

 

Well, that was exciting.  Getting a fairly close picture of a Cooper's Hawk has been on my list.  I've been fortunate getting decent pictures of a Red-tailed Hawk.  Today I can cross this off my list and get to work on seeing something like an Indigo Bunting.

 

Here are two images from the internet to show how close the Sharp-shinned Hawk ("Sharpie") and a Cooper's Hawk are...

 

 

Sharp-shinned Left and Cooper's Right