My expectations upon heading out birding this morning were infinitesimal. The wind was gusting over 25 mph … not to mention the rain. In fact I wondered why on earth I was even trying to find birds. Only a person with a “birdbrain” would decide to go birding in such horrible weather.

With these extremely high expectations I drove over to the Forest Hill Cemetery (see Minnesota birding locations web page). Immediately I found Great Blue Herons and Belted Kingfishers looking for breakfast at one of the ponds. Moments later I discovered a “non fisherman” mantling and then enjoying its meal.

When hawks catch their prey, these birds often “mantle”. The goals of this behavior is to spread their wings and hide their catch from other predators. This juvenile Cooper’s Hawk was NOT interested in sharing!

Cooper’s Hawk Mantling its Prey

A few moments later … enjoying breakfast.

I watched the Cooper’s Hawk eat for over 20 minutes. Its prey (duck or goose??) was obviously too heavy to be moved.

Oh yes … the horrible weather?? On a normal morning Forest Hill Cemetery would have been full of folks taking a morning walk. However, this morning I had the cemetery to myself which turned horrible birding conditions into a fantastic time. I doubt my special time with the Cooper’s Hawk would ever had occurred on a nice day.

And two videos from this morning (video links for email subscribers: one | two)