Birds A Cooper's Hawk Having Dinner in My Backyard

[SYSO]

R5 - RF 800 f/11 - 1/500s - ISO 3200

 

[Bucolic Old Sir Henry]

Excellent shots. Did you lay the bait? I ask because a few years ago I shot a couple of rabbits (serious pest here) and pegged them out on the front lawn to attract our local harriers. Struck the jackpot when two of them started squabbling over the carcass...

 

[SYSO]

Excellent shots. Did you lay the bait? I ask because a few years ago I shot a couple of rabbits (serious pest here) and pegged them out on the front lawn to attract our local harriers. Struck the jackpot when two of them started squabbling over the carcass...

No, the encounter was purely by chance. My wife and I were going out for a walk after dinner through our backyard fence gate when I saw the hawk with its prey. I ran right back inside the house to get my camera and approached it stealthily and started shooting away. I couldn't see what it was eating, but upon a close look during the post processing that it looked to be a rabbit. If it was, then the hawk must have caught it from outside our backyard fence and brought it in to enjoy it in privacy. We, too, have many rabbits around, and I rabbit-proofed my backyard to protect our vegetable garden, so I'm sure the hawk didn't catch the rabbit in my yard. This is the only second time I happened to see a hawk with a prey in my backyard in some 20 years, so it's rare.

 

[SYSO]

This was the first time I came across a hawk with its prey in my yard. Last year. I think it caught a vole in my yard, so it did me a service.

 

[Bucolic Old Sir Henry]

Great shot! Will have to dig my .22 out and give it a clean... ;-)