Cooper Hawks Attacking Crows
Cooper Hawks Attacking Crows
During the fall of 1907 a flock of crows, numbering perhaps a thousand, frequently came out from the San Francisco Bay shore to spend the day with us at San Geronimo, feeding about the fields and on the hillsides. It happened that about noon on October 27th the flock lit in some trees near our barns. As I came out of the house just after lunch there was quite a commotion in the flock, and it proved that two Cooper Hawks (Accipiteer cooperi) were attacking the crows, doing some remarkably good team work in their endeavors to lay low one of their dusky enemies. The crows were, however, too alert for the hawks and no loss was inflicted beyond a few feathers. The excitement was so great that I was enabled to walk up on the flock and bag both hawks. One is accustomed to see crows attacking hawks, and it seems rather surprising that the opposite would take place. But in this instance there was no doubt in the world of the true state of the case. The crows were quietly perched on the dead tops of some alders that had been killed by the changing of the course of a small stream, and the hawks deliberately pitched into them, one attacking from above and the other from below. One hawk would perch on top of a tree above the crows while the other would go off a little way and then swoop down on the flock, repeating the operation with variations. Whether this was all done in a spirit of bravado, or for the purpose of securing a meal, it is of course impossible to determine. My foreman and I watched the game for some time before killing the hawks; then seeing that no daniage was being done and fearing to lose the opportunity of destroying such enemies to bird life as the Cooper Hawk has proved itself to be, I walked up to the flock and shot both the members of the attacking party.
JOSEPH MAILLARD
San Francisco, California
