Why Raptors Rule

This is an immature Cooper’s Hawk we spotted on the far side of the 8^th fairway here at Salemtowne yesterday.  We had already seen a Merlin, and after this Cooper’s Hawk, we saw two Red-tailed Hawks. I remember when we first moved here that I was surprised to hear people say that we have a lot of hawks here, because it seems like a pretty urban setting.  I now think the reason we see so many raptors is that a good percentage of the residents have bird feeders in their back yards.  So, we put out the seed, the little birds eat the seed, and then the big birds eat the little birds.  Quite a good system, and makes for lots of interesting bird watching.