My husband and I were working in the yard yesterday and heard what we thought was Northern flicker calling as it flew overhead. Reflexively glancing up to see the bird, I was startled to see not a flicker, but a hawk or very large falcon slicing through the sky, crying as it did so. Whipping out my trusty Merlin app, I discovered to my huge surprise that the call belonged to a Cooper’s Hawk.

For the record, the Cooper’s Hawk yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-yip-yip call is slightly slower and lower pitched than a Northern flickers’. But they are similar enough that I have probably been mistaking a Cooper’s for a flicker. I hang my head in embarrassment. But who knew?

As I ran for my camera, the hawk landed in the cottonwood across the street, very angry with the world.

It perched there, screaming injustice to every one who could hear for about two minutes.

Then, in an angry burst of it’s wings, it took off. I could hear it flying around the neighborhood for ten minutes after that.

Events like this make me wonder what else I am missing in the world around me. Sigh.