Saturday was cloudy and drizzly for most of the day, but as the sky began to break up a bit in the afternoon, I took the opportunity to pay the Cooper’s Hawks at the Guelph Lake Nature Centre another visit. It had been three weeks since I’d last been by, and I found the female still patiently brooding up in their willow tree nest.

The hen still bears the fierce yellow eyes and streaky brown feathers of a juvenile.  Since Cooper’s Hawks obtain their adult feathers in their second year, this makes her one of last year’s chicks.  It’s uncommon for coops to nest in their first year, although it does happen, and typically they will nest a little later and lay smaller clutches than older birds.

I have yet to see the male during either of my visits, but I’m sure that will change once the young hatch.  I’m hopeful that the pair will remain tolerant of human intrusion, and not only because I would like to continue to visit without disturbance.  The nest is in the immediate vicinity of the nature centre, which acts primarily as a children’s educational resource (while I was there, a group of kids were noisily enjoying a campfire roast, though the hen did not seem too alarmed by their screaming and chattering).  The hawks will be subject to a lot of human traffic this summer — hopefully the differing interests of both the birds and the visitors will not cause conflict.