Hello and Happy New Year to all----First the bad news....The western tanager that showed up at my backyard feeders on 10:30 AM on January 1 has not been seen since 11:40 AM that same morning.  The tanager was on it's third lengthy visit when the neighborhood Cooper's hawk launched another attack on the feeder birds.  The bright yellow, black, and white tanager must have stuck out like a sore thumb to the Coop (remember, the best bird-watchers are other birds!).  The last I saw of the tanager it was fleeing for it's life and making some serious evasive manuevers just ahead of the pursuing Cooper's hawk.  I went out back and looked for signs of a strike/kill but found nothing, so perhaps the tanager got away.  At any rate, it never returned to the feeders.  It made me wonder--does the disappearance of evening grosbeaks (also conspicuously yellow, black, and white and large enough to make a meal for a Coop) from backyard feeding stations over the last
 couple decades have anything to do with the enormous increase in urban Cooper's hawks during the same time frame?.........In other local birding news here in NE Mahoning Co., red-shouldered hawks and n. mockingbirds are still fairly common in the area.  The Mahoning River from Struthers to Lowellville held 5 ring-necked ducks, 2 c. goldeneyes, and 26 hooded mergansers yesterday.  Later, Craig




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