Yesterday evening (~6pm) a student and his mom were looking up at our gourd racks in front of the school, when to hear him tell it a "big hawk" swept in in a blur of motion and snatched an ASY male right off of the rack.
Almost certainly a Cooper's, hunting immediately adjacent to an area crowded with people and cars.
Each spring our colony suffers heavy predation pressures at about this time, the raptors likely drawn by the huge grackle/starling roost just up the road.
Certainly a martin caught by surprise appears to be easy prey, unable either to dive for cover or to accelerate quickly, perhaps the hawks instinctively recognize this.
Just now we have two poles and 16 gourds at that spot. Next year, if the situation permits, I'm going to look into further dispersing our colony around campus.
Mike Scully
Student witnesses Cooper's hawk predation
I staked out the front gourd racks from 5:30 till 7 pm today. No Cooper's appeared, which isn't to say it isn't still around.
The martins went to roost in the pattern familiar this time of year, which is to say very wary. Much low circling of the gourdsets with numerous calls before a sudden simultaneous dive and scramble in. One female in a Carrol gourd sat for a long time with her head out, looking around, so that I was thinking that perhaps it was her mate that had been taken, but quite late a big male came in and joined her in the gourd.
Perhaps the martin that was taken yeserday was a new arrival.
In contast to the clearly worried martins, it was amazing how relaxed all the other birds seemed to be. About 100 Great-tailed Grackles and Starlings roosted in the adjacent trees, and there is a pair of Mourning Doves and a pair of White-winged Doves in residence in that part of campus. If any of these other species were displaying undue concern about the regular appearance of a Cooper's I couldn't notice.
Underscoring just how uniquely vulnerable martins seem to be to Cooper's.
Mike Scully
The martins went to roost in the pattern familiar this time of year, which is to say very wary. Much low circling of the gourdsets with numerous calls before a sudden simultaneous dive and scramble in. One female in a Carrol gourd sat for a long time with her head out, looking around, so that I was thinking that perhaps it was her mate that had been taken, but quite late a big male came in and joined her in the gourd.
Perhaps the martin that was taken yeserday was a new arrival.
In contast to the clearly worried martins, it was amazing how relaxed all the other birds seemed to be. About 100 Great-tailed Grackles and Starlings roosted in the adjacent trees, and there is a pair of Mourning Doves and a pair of White-winged Doves in residence in that part of campus. If any of these other species were displaying undue concern about the regular appearance of a Cooper's I couldn't notice.
Underscoring just how uniquely vulnerable martins seem to be to Cooper's.
Mike Scully