A Hawk Told Me Where the Owls Were Hiding

Since January, I’ve had nearly perfect luck imagining an animal seemingly moments before seeing it through my camera. Yesterday as I drove towards my usual birding location, I pondered why I hadn’t seen whales on a whale watching trip just days prior. I had seen several signs suggesting good luck, and yet upon return the captain announced that none of the boats on the water that day had reported seeing any notable wildlife. As I parked, I thought to myself, “Let’s find the juvenile red-shoulders and juvenile cooper’s hawks before they disband. It’d be awesome to see an owl.” I’m fairly certain owls are my spirit animal. 

Almost as soon as I arrive, a beautiful cooper’s hawk lands in a tree very close to me in perfect lighting. My gear malfunctions, and I miss the shot. I reset my camera and moments later come upon the juvenile red-shouldered hawks hunting, fighting over food, and chirping to each other. I hear the cooper’s hawk call out—first from a tree near me, then again from a tree in the distance. I photograph them for quite some time, all the while hearing a cooper’s hawk calling out in the distance. On several occasions, it landed near me before zooming off. It’s so incessant, that I decide I can’t leave without finding this bird.

I walk to the tree where I know it must be but can’t find it for about 10 minutes. Its calls are non-stop at this point but for the life of me I simply couldn’t see the bird. After about 10 minutes of searching a single tree, it flutters its wings just enough for me to find its feet and butt through my view finder. I stay like this, staring at an unchanging scene of tree and leaves and feathers and a foot before I realize, “oh my god is that an ear?” I had been staring at an owl for several minutes, completely convinced by its camouflage.

For hours, a family of cooper’s hawks did everything they could to get two owls to leave their tree. The juveniles yelled (chirped) but never dared touching the owl. The adult got much loser and got nipped at several times. Nonetheless, the owls never moved. I went home and came back several hours later to find the scene unchanged. As I reflect, it feels as if the owls were teaching me something about power and might. They could have easily killed the hawks attacking them. Yet, they remained composed and restrained to no end.