Juvenile Cooper's Hawk

My husband and I were having lunch, when we saw a dark shape fly over the deck and land in a nearby tree. As it turns out, it was a juvenile Cooper's hawk (note the white bar just above the gray and black plaid flannel tail), and it sat there for about eight minutes, giving me plenty of time to abandon my lunch, grab my camera, and start snapping away!

So here is a photo of a Cooper's hawk who came to visit. What you don't see (yet) in this photo are the hummingbirds! Yes, our three hummingbirds are feeling feisty these days. And they are tough defenders of a feeder that hangs from a clothes line above the deck. 

The three tiny birds showed up within moments - zoom zoom ZOOM! - and they came and flew over the hawk - maybe a foot or two above it - and attacked and harassed it until it finally left! Wow, man. Those are TOUGH little critters! 

None of my photos actually included the hummingbirds, they were so wily and so quick in their aerial maneuvers, but I will NEVER forget it!!! The scene reminded me of King Kong, perhaps, atop his tower, with all of the tiny fighter jets attacking! A real dog fight. . . .

It's my custom to include a soundtrack song, and this one is for our brave, crazy hummingbirds, who attacked a hawk a hundred times larger than they are. I was reminded of Snoopy and his immortal quest to beat the Red Baron, so here are the Royal Guardsmen with Snoopy vs the Red Baron.