[Tweeters] Do Cooper's eat rats?

[Dee Dee]

A couple of years ago I got photos of a Coopers with a juvenile-sized (not a little baby) Eastern Cottontail held down on the ground in its talons in our yard, under our old apple tree. The hawk was able to fly away with it. We were a bit surprised but mostly because over the years, with all the gosh-darned rabbits since they arrived to stay 10 or so years ago, and being home so much, this was the first time we happened to see such. 

And by the way, a Bald Eagle (commonly seen here in Edmonds, but never in our garden before) was standing on our garden shed roof just after I opened the blinds this morning. Got a few pics with my phone in the 3 minutes it stood there looking around while being yelled at by some crows. Subsequent peek at our security cam revealed a rabbit sitting next to the shed when it flew in—whereupon rabbit quickly disappeared under the shed. 

To round out this stellar yard-bird day, an adult Coopers stopped to scope out the bird feeder tree area and shrubby surroundings, and not long afterwards a male Pileated Woodpecker showed up on the suet. We felt lucky to see or hear a pileated a few times a year prior to this winter, and same with Downy Woodpeckers. In the past 2 months we’ve had numerous visits by both male and female Pileateds (one at a time) and especially this past week. Also Downies on subsequent days.  Can’t explain it, just enjoying it! Eventually I will get some pics posted in my Flickr account but can’t say when. 

Danene (Dee)
Edmonds