Tuesday, June 06, 2017

Accipiter cooperii at the Mall

I got lucky the other day. In the morning about ten o’clock or so I was headed someplace apparently that took me by the Johnson City Mall, on North Roan Street. Where ever I was going required that I turn down Mountcastle, past Bojangles, past Bowman’s Jewelry new outlet. There on the right, where Bowman’s iron fence separates their property was a Cooper’s hawk enjoying the sunshine.

To get the picture, I had to keep an eye on him, turn right into the mall, go twenty yards to turn right again to get to the entrance into the parking lot in front of Dick’s Sporting Goods, and then another into the parking lot itself and then aimed towards where the Cooper’s was sitting on the fence, all the while, not causing an accident and keeping my eye on the hawk.

I had to get out of the car and open the trunk and fumble to get camera bag out and the camera out out of the camera bag (danged zippers!) and turned on and zoomed and aimed and all that while he sat tapping his talon in exasperation that I couldn’t get my act together. He was patient.

This shot is from under the trees of a parking island and about as lucky as I’ll ever get. We have regular sightings of Cooper’s and Sharp-shin accipiters as well as many of the other hawks. At Winged Deer Park is a Bald eagle’s nest which is also viewable via the webcam sponsored by ETSU.

This one was just not expected.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

Comments welcome. Use the "anonymous" profile. Thanks.

<< Home