If you want to see predators in action, you don’t need the Discovery Channel. Cooper’s hawks--abundant year-round birds of prey--hunt and nest right here in Beacon Hill Park.

We can enjoy observing these amazing birds in the wild and, at the same time, contribute to a valuable research study by reporting hawk sightings. (See contact information at the end of this article.)

Coopers hawks (Accipiter cooperii) are crow-size birds with very long tails. Those long tails--easily seen in flight and when the bird is perched--enable hawks to outmaneuver prey doing their utmost to escape. Hawks eat small birds such as robins, sparrows, finches, starlings, pigeons, and the occasional rat.

Most hawks in our area have coloured bands on their left legs, often visible without binoculars; females have red bands, males wear black bands. With binoculars, the code on the band--unique to each bird--can be seen. The code can be any combination of letters or numbers.

Wildlife biologist Andy Stewart has personally banded over 1,000 Cooper’s hawks in the last ten years, an astonishing accomplishment. Banding is an essential tool in his on-going study of the breeding ecology of urban-nesting Cooper’s Hawks in Greater Victoria and the Saanich Peninsula. By compiling large numbers of band number sightings over time, Stewart tracks individual hawks and learns about hawk behaviour in general. Stewart can conclude, for example, from the large number of eggs in nests and the consistently high rate of fledgling success, that hawks “have no difficulty finding prey in this city environment.”
  

Stewart works hard to find every hawk nest in the area so he can band nestlings when they are young. He enlists a helper to climb nest trees and lower the chicks in a backpack with a rope. When he bands a bird, Andy also weighs it, measures the upper leg diameter and length and upper beak length. He even measures the height of the nest by attaching a tape onto the backpack as it is pulled back up to replace the banded nestlings.

If a nest-tree is impossible to climb, or a nest isn’t discovered, some nestlings go unbanded. Stewart uses a "bal-chatri" trap, baited with a live bird such as a sparrow or cowbird, to catch and band juvenile hawks. When the hawks fly down in an attempt to catch the bird, their feet get tangled in nylon nooses covering the trap.

Stewart used a second method--an artificial owl and a mist net--to attract and catch two adults in Beacon Hill Park in July, 2002. The male, already banded as a nestling four years before at Government House, was quickly released when he dove at the stuffed owl, but the female was banded when caught.

One or two hawk nests are found in Beacon Hill Park every year and the best hawk action is observed at nest locations. To find a nest-site, be alert in the spring (especially in March) to hawk calls--a distinctive kek-kek-kek--and watch for birds carrying sticks.

Both males and females construct the nest, then the females brood and feed the nestlings. Males do nearly all of the hunting for the family; five chicks are common, so that is a big job. Males only visit nest areas for brief periods to deliver prey. Standing guard at or near the nest, day after day, is the female; she receives the food delivered by the male and rips it up for the chicks.

The life-story of one Beacon Hill Park hawk, “Black O over C” (shown in the photo by Andy Stewart), illustrates the kind of information Stewart compiles with the help of amateur observers. In 1998, “O over C” was a two year old adult nesting with an unbanded adult female on Arbutus Way. Stewart already knew him well. When banded two years before in Oak Bay, the chick appeared to be sick and it seemed doubtful he would survive. But the next year, in May, 1997, “O over C” was reported near the Princess Mary Restaurant. Later, another observer reported him eating a House Sparrow at an office window on Blanchard. His 1998 nest on Arbutus Way was a success and Stewart banded four nestlings.

“O over C” returned to the same Beacon Hill nest area in spring, 1999, and began “a new nest with an unbanded adult female, probably the same mate as in 1998.” Tragedy struck, however, when “O over C” was hit by a car on Southgate. His mate “recruited a replacement mate within a matter of days and successfully nested in the Park.” (Stewart, The Victoria Naturalist, 2000)

You can contribute to Andy Stewart’s study by reporting Cooper’s hawk observations (the more information the better, such as colour of the band, code, date, time and location) to Andy Stewart, Wildlife Biologist, 3932 Telegraph Bay Road, Victoria, B. C. V8N 4H7; Phone: (250) 477-1328; E-mail: andy.stewart@shaw.ca