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Article By Kory Koch Cooper hawks are the villains of the accipiter world. They are large enough to chase and catch almost any bird or small mammal that visits a bird feeder. They hunt with stealthy sneak attacks, using trees, bushes, fencerows, houses and buildings to hide their approach at their intended victims. Once in close, they shift gears and pursue their prey with a direct flight often snatching them up in the air or following headfirst into trees and brush. They are as comfortable in a large city as they are in the country. They are well known by many backyard birding enthusiasts who regularly see them chasing birds from their bird feeders. My opinion and feeling is that they are unsuitable for traditional "fall and winter" falconry in Michigan. Though willing to chase most anything the only legal (non-protected) and size appropriate quarry that is readily available are birds such as starlings, sparrows and pigeons. All are difficult to fly with traditional walk up "field hawking" methods. Car hawking is often employed to get close enough to these species though after a season of hawking this way, I tend to really miss working a field behind a dog with a bird on my glove. My experience with cooper hawks as falconry birds is limited to a few passage birds, a brancher and one eyas, and from these few birds I will attempt to qualify my statements. The following is a list of game attempted to be flown with cooper hawks in Michigan over the past 9 years. I have never intermewed a passage cooper hawk, preferring to release it and fly a new bird the following year. Ducks: Unfortunately, by the time I have been able to trap and get a passage female cooper hawk going, all the teal, coot and wood ducks have left the small ponds and creeks where they are often located earlier in the season. This could be avoided by flying an eyas female, but with the traditional, second week of October duck opener, small ducks are still difficult to fine in hawkable locations. In my experience, this basically leaves mallards or the occasional black duck. They are both big and tough ducks. I've never had a cooper hawk catch and HOLD ON to a duck long enough for me to get to them. My last passage female could catch em', that wasn't the problem.. it was the holdin' on that was tough... She got wing-whipped off 9 mallards the season that I flew her. Even a large cooper hawk (18+oz) has a hard time with a mallard. If you could find small ducks, a female cooper hawk could do it. Rabbits: I rehabbed a passage female that crashed into a window a few years ago. After a couple weeks healing, I started flying her on hand tossed sparrows, which she slowly took to as her vision and focus improved. We would go for long walks and I watched her reaction to field birds to gauge her progress. We often would flush rabbits on these walks. She would chase and grab rabbits during these long twisting flights, but with the thick cover never got more than a foot on them. Shortly after a couple successful attempts at rabbits and being satisfied that she was releasable, I set her loose. My last passage cooper hawk would also fly rabbits, but she never worked up the nerve to try and grab them. I never tried bagging her on one.. Again, even an 18+oz cooper hawk would have a difficult time with the large Michigan cottontails that can weight nearly 3+lbs. Pheasant: Once there was snow on the ground, I made attempts to fly pheasants with my last passage female cooper hawk. She would always chase them, even roosters, but she never grabbed a rooster. We had a couple dozen flights that I think she actually stood a chance to catch one. She knocked a lot of feathers off them but only ended up catching one hen pheasant on the re-flush. Needless to say a good pointing dog is critical for successful pheasant flights that generally require a re-flush after the initial flight. Ruffed Grouse and Woodcock: These two birds are a blast to fly if you can find them. A good pointing dog of course, is imperative. I have tried it off the fist and flying the bird out of the trees. I think the advantage of flying the hawk out of the trees is this tends to make the grouse or woodcock freeze in place and gives you better points with the dog and less chance of bumping. When the dog gets birdy, give the signal to the hawk that something is about to flush and all sorts of fun happens.. Again, I spent a solid month (December) flying grouse with only a couple feathers to show for it. But was it a blast! Pigeons: Find a barn full of pigeons, close up all the holes, turn on the lights and let a cooper hawk loose.. This can turn into a free for all really easily.. I have had to climb across rafters and old beams to retrieve the cooper hawk on a pigeon.. I have only done this a couple times.. Kinda made me nervous. Car hawking Sparrows, Starlings and Crows: A passage tercil cooper hawk I flew one season got pretty good at catching sparrows and starlings out the car window.. This was fun for a season, but I prefer field hawking personally.. I did slip a brancher female at a flock of starlings by a dumpster one time only to have her end up wrestling with a big crow that was on the other side that probably out weighed her 2 to 1.. It was tough to tell who was winning that fight.. Car hawking crows is better left to the Harris or Goshawks. A field or parking lot with pigeons could result in some good car hawking also, though this would most likely be in a very urban environment. Quail: I bought 40 Tennessee Red quail to release and fly with my last Coopers hawk when we couldn't any other game to fly. This gave me a consistent source for classic field hawking with my Brittney and my passage female. We did actually catch two wild bobwhite over a point one day while hawking way down state that fall... This is the ultimate in flying cooper hawks in my opinion.. I guess If I could find some teal or wood duck, that would rate pretty well also. Michigan will never have a regularly hawkable quail population. Dove: There is a referenced to a cooper hawk catching a dove I read by a California falconer. Doves would be a very difficult quarry for a cooper hawk to catch without a huge element of surprise. Squirrels: We have run across red squirrels from time to time and the passage female cooper hawks have always given chase.. I bite my nails and hope the squirrel finds a hope to escape down so the cooper hawk doesn't loose a toe.. I think that a cooper hawk could do it, but the problems that could occur would shy me away from pushing it with a cooper hawk. As you can see, a cooper hawk will chase just about anything. Suitable quarry in northern climates is tough to find in mid-winter if you are looking for classic off the fist field hawking. A tercil goshawk in my opinion can do what a passage female cooper hawk cannot and doesn't sacrifice any flash in doing it. |
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