I noticed a new addition to our backyard Fishtown wildlife this afternoon: what I believe to be an immature Cooper’s Hawk. He was feasting on a freshly caught sparrow when I first saw him but he soon returned to our fencepost to survey the surrounding yards. As I photographed the scene, I noticed a squirrel watching him high up in a tree. After a few minutes of frozen observation, he bravely climbed down to the fence. I watched in amazement as he took a few steps forward, a few steps back, then forward, then back…The hawk turned its head as a cat would before it catches a mouse. I thought this squirrel was surely going to be this bird’s next meal. The squirrel, however, had other plans in mind. He resolutely emerged again, this time with a peanut in its mouth, as if offering an olive branch or saying “Hey, you wouldn’t eat a squirrel with a nut would you?”
Then slowly, slowly, the squirrel began to climb down and around the hawk, who watched with an intense curiosity but did not strike. Then, the squirrel was safely on the other side and on his way. I guess no roadblock is too big when you’re on a mission.
