I'm trying to get photos with the NovaBird Camera of a bald blue jay and cardinal but I keep getting massive amounts of rock pigeon photos. This morning the ledge was full of hangry pigeons (they were hungry and angry). So I opened the screen and filled the feeders and turned on the Squirrel Twirl which keeps the pigeons off at least one of my feeders. As I was filling the feeder the dude pictured below kept trying to land on the ledge--very brave for the pigeons on my block--they usually wait until after I close the screen to land:
This pigeon sticks out in my neighborhood because he looks like a garden variety pigeon, not the panoply of colors all the other Uptown pigeons have. I just got fascinated by him. The rest of the flock stayed at the top of the apartment building impatiently cooing for me to finish. This guy flew to the ground below to go after all the seed that I spilled. He completely ignored the squirrel which the other pigeons avoid. Suddenly, a loud clap startled me as all the pigeons took off overhead. "That was pretty urgent," I thought to myself, "there must be a Cooper's hawk flying around."
My little friend continued to feed as though nothing had gone wrong. Even the other birds on the ground around him took off and still this guy stayed. I thought to myself that this guy is not long for this world, if he's not paying attention to all the other birds around him. After a few minutes, he did fly up to the window just below mine and looked for more spilled seeds. Sometimes, if I drop a few seeds on a pigeon, it startles them and they fly off. I sprinkled some seeds down and they bounced off its back without much reaction. Another armada of pigeons took off in a panic, still this guy stayed on the ledge looking for food. As I watched this oblivious pigeon with wonder, a large, fast form zipped past my peripheral vision: there was the Cooper's hawk. The pigeon finally took off and darted right for the clustered trees, followed in hot pursuit by the Coops. I could tell already the Coops was too far behind and would not get this pigeon. On a hairpin turn, the pigeon dropped to the ground and banked hard to the right. The Coops got caught up in the foliage and when it darted to the right to get to the pigeon, it was flying too high to be able to catch up to the pigeon.
The Coops landed on the power line right outside my bedroom--where was my camera!? The hawk gave its kek kek kek kek kek kek kek call--I wonder if it was in frustration in having missed such an easy mark? I dashed for my camera, but a truck coming down the ally startled the Coops and it was away. It was not an adult like the one pictured above, but this is all I could find in iPhoto. Plus, it looks cool.