Juvenile Cooper's Hawk
The forecast was for clouds all morning changing to light rain this afternoon. I awoke to almost complete cloud cover, so I set off to run some errands. By 10:00 the sun was shining, so I decided to take a short hike here in Stoney Creek. As I left Lake Monocan on my way to the Allen Creek Nature Preserve, I noticed a juvenile Cooper's Hawk high in a tree above Tuckahoe golf fairway #3.
Juvenile Cooper's Hawk
After a few minutes of my watching it, and several golfers passing by below that tree, the hawk flew low across the course and into the smaller north end of the nature preserve.
As I entered the preserve from the hiking path that cuts across the golf course, the hawk made a low pass just in front of me and flew into the south part of the preserve.
Juvenile Cooper's Hawk
I tried to follow its flight path into the preserve, but lost it, and then thought that I saw it again in the preserve, but that one turned out to be a Red-tailed Hawk.
Red-tailed Hawk