{"id":74862,"date":"2020-10-24T06:49:58","date_gmt":"2020-10-24T12:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=74862"},"modified":"2025-10-24T07:49:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T12:49:16","slug":"i-am-never-not-looking-for-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2020\/10\/24\/i-am-never-not-looking-for-birds\/","title":{"rendered":"I Am Never NOT Looking For Birds"},"content":{"rendered":"

Looking for birds<\/h2>\n

\"ImmatureImmature Cooper’s Hawk in a pine next to my grocery store parking lot – Crappy Samsung cell phone image
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Yesterday morning as I was leaving my grocery store I caught a flash of movement over my head and as I looked up I spotted an immature Cooper’s Hawk chasing after an American Crow.\u00a0 The crow landed at the top of a pine tree next to the parking lot and the young Cooper’s dove into the center of the pine about halfway up its height.<\/p>\n

I didn’t have my bird photography gear with me so I shifted my grocery bags to my left hand, grabbed my cell phone, zoomed it in, walked towards the pine tree, and took a photo of the Cooper’s Hawk as it made its way to the top of the tree near the trunk.<\/p>\n

I knew the cell phone snap was going to be crappy because I had zoomed it in as far as I could but I wanted to share it with a circle around the hawk to show what I was looking at.<\/p>\n

\"AmericanAmerican Crows in the marsh at Farmington Bay WMA \u2013 Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/500, ISO 500, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

By that time the American Crow had flown off and the person in a little white sedan that was driving slowly past me in the parking lot probably wondered what the heck I was doing staring at and why I was taking a photo of the tree. I paid no attention to the driver of the sedan as I watched the Cooper’s Hawk moving from branch to branch until it flew from the top of the tree and chased a crow to the edge of the parking lot and across a busy road towards an open field.<\/p>\n

\"YoungYoung Cooper’s Hawk portrait \u2013 Nikon D500, f9, 1\/640, ISO 250, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Typically I see House Sparrows, European Starlings, Rock Pigeons and gulls in my grocery store parking lot. Over the past two years or so American Crows have become a more common sight there and in my neighborhood as well and I’ve repeatedly thought about taking my camera to the store to photograph the crows.<\/p>\n

Once or twice I’ve seen a Cooper’s Hawk zoom by as I’ve headed to or from my Jeep at the grocery store. I’ve seen Ospreys, Bald Eagles, ducks and geese fly over that area too.<\/p>\n

\"YoungYoung Cooper’s Hawk walking on a fence rail \u2013 Nikon D500, f10, 1\/320, ISO 250, Nikkor 500mm VR, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

Good eye sight can certainly help when it comes to finding birds however I know that paying attention to what is going on around and in front of me is equally important.<\/p>\n

It does not matter where I am or what I am doing, I am never not looking for birds.<\/p>\n

I even “see” them in my sleep.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Cooper\u2019s Hawk photos plus facts and information about this species. Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my American Crow photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n

The American Crow image has been previously posted on my blog, the two photos of the young Cooper’s Hawk are new to it.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It does not matter where I am or what I am doing, I am never not looking for birds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":147115,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5967,27,5715,4594,709,26,773],"tags":[10402,5397,5969,5717,2663,3940,4142,5716,8187,3194,5968,5970,1051,834,3983,10561,4033,4169,2386,4064,4067,4094,4069,10562,5540,10560,4046,10403,153,4236,373,9767,4193],"class_list":["post-74862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-crows","category-avian","category-coopers-hawks","category-morgan-county","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-utah","category-wasatch-mountains","tag-accipiter","tag-accipiters","tag-american-crow","tag-astur-cooperii","tag-birds-of-prey","tag-canyon","tag-close-up","tag-coopers-hawk","tag-corvid","tag-corvids","tag-corvus-brachyrhynchos","tag-crow","tag-crows","tag-fence-rail","tag-frost","tag-grocery-store","tag-hawk","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-utah","tag-ice","tag-immature","tag-marsh","tag-mountains","tag-parking-lot","tag-pine","tag-pine-tree","tag-portrait","tag-railing","tag-raptors","tag-walking","tag-winter","tag-wooden-fence","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/coopers-hawk-immature-close-up-fence-rail-mia-mcpherson-2253.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-jts","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":124590,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2024\/03\/17\/coopers-hawk-nearly-hidden-and-in-plain-sight\/","url_meta":{"origin":74862,"position":0},"title":"Cooper’s Hawk – Nearly Hidden And In Plain Sight","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"March 17, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Two days ago, while I was photographing some Rock Squirrels, I saw a beautiful immature Cooper's Hawk fly in and land in a tangle of trees near the squirrels.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Nearly hidden immature Cooper's Hawk, Salt Lake County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/coopers-hawk-immature-nearly-hidden-mia-mcpherson-9960.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/coopers-hawk-immature-nearly-hidden-mia-mcpherson-9960.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, 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