Bird-Watchers Watch Bird Hunting

A Cooper’s hawk will capture attention, if not a few finches, any time it pays a visit to a backyard bird feeder. But June and Frank Potter, two experienced wildlife watchers from the Spokane Valley, say they’ve never seen anything quite like the hawk that’s adopted their neighborhood.

Through the winter, the Potters had seen the hawk “working” the area to pick off birds at backyard feeders.

They weren’t surprised one day to see the hawk swoop and scatter a covey of quail that likes to rest in a brush pile near their house.

While most of the quail flushed, some took refuge in the brush. The hawk staked out the pile for about five minutes before dropping to the ground and walking to the tangle of branches.

“It hopped up on it and stomped up the full length of the pile, stopping at every step to look down through the sticks and listen,” they wrote in the Inland Northwest Wildlife Council’s April newsletter. “Next it hunched over and poked its head down into the pile.”

The show came to a cliffhanger conclusion when a foolishly nervous quail exploded from the brush and disappeared around the Potters’ house - with the Cooper’s hawk in hot pursuit.

“We didn’t get to see the outcome,” the Potters said, “but we suspect there was one less quail pigging out in our feeder that night.”

Of course, the camcorder was in the closet.