Collected from sweep netting. Images by José M. Flores.
Check exact day and time; month and year correct.
When I looked out the window just before noon, I spied this Cooper’s Hawk indulging in lunch. I grabbed my camera and took too many photos while I watched it eat whatever that was down to nothing but feathers. It finally left, leaping up from the ground to disappear above the top of my window view – only for there quickly to follow a drifting fall of pale feathers. What a glutton! It had leapt up from finishing one meal to snatch another from the air. I went outside to see if I could spot it again, but it was gone or well hidden. Examining the freshly fallen feathers confirmed that the new kill was a dove, which it seems they usually are in my yard.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/71527879
When I checked the feathers of the first, I found it was a starling.
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/71527765
To make it more interesting - there was nothing left of the starling when I checked the spot, but just now watching video I was shooting when it leapt up showed that it grabbed its leftovers as it launched - AND nailed the dove.
Beat from conifer branches, maybe Cerceris? Also posted to BG here:
https://bugguide.net/node/view/1537060
Seen flying over slough area then off to the WNW along Hwy 1
Appeared to be a family with juveniles
Nectaring on buckbrush (Symphoricarpos occidentalis)