Local fauna

[gwynraven]

So today I'm out walking by the library and I see this older gentleman staring at something on the ground. I get closer and I realise that he's studying one of our albino squirrels (both of whom made it through the hurricane, yay!). So I strike up a quick conversation and we're talking about how rare it is to see an albino squirrel and I'm

Comments

[tewok]

As the Squirrel King, let me express my deepest appreciation that you would save one of my minions -- especially one of the rarer sorts.

[harkalark]

Don't make me come down there!

[cissa]

A Cooper's hawk? I thought they were smaller, and wouldhave a hard time handling a squirrel.

Although a sense of scale is not always a raptor thing. One time we were at the zoo in an aviary (birds mostly free, people under nets), and there was this adorable, wee tropical hawk perched right over the walkway. It pretty much ignored adults... but when a toddler scampered by, it made as if to stoop on the kid. Who was only about 200 times its size!

I'm glad you saved the albino squirrel, though- they're so cute! I also likethe dead-black ones.

[gwynraven]

It was actually a medium-sized hawk, and I'm pretty sure it was a Cooper's, but I could be wrong. The markings were unlike any of the others that live in the area. It was large for a Cooper's, but not overly so.

[kk1raven]

It would be unusual for a Cooper's Hawk to go after a squirrel but not impossible. Their normal diet is birds. However, a hungry hawk is going to go after whatever it can find to go after. If it was a first-year bird on its first migration, it might well have been very hungry. Mostly, it is Red-tailed Hawks that hunt gray squirrels. Red-tails have a lot of variation in plumage and the young ones don't have red tails and it is possible that you saw one with markings that could be confused with an accipiter if you didn't get a good look. They have a very different shape though and that would be harder to be mistaken about. If it was shaped like an accipiter, it probably was a Cooper's Hawk.

[gwynraven]

Well, the tail wasn't red, and it had a longer tail in proportion to its body than I'm used to either the red-tail or the red-shouldered having. The tail was banded. It looked large enough to carry off the squirrel, but certainly not large enough to carry off a rabbit, as I've seen red-tails do. So that's why I figured it for a larger Cooper's. If you've got a better idea, I'd be happy to know. It all happened pretty fast, so I can't be sure of all the details.