A week or two ago someone mentioned on this list server seeing a Cooper's Hawk with a nest near the Indianola Bridge in Glen Echo Ravine in Columbus. I walk that way several times a week (weather permitting) at lunch time, and while I've seen a hawk there, I've been unable to spot the nest. Of course, I never carry binoculars with me on my lunch hour because I'm already eating and walking. Today as I was about 100 yards east of the bridge I heard an alarm call from a Cooper's so I stopped to try and spot it. I even tried a little lip squeaking to see if I could get it out into the open. Eventually I spotted it, sitting on a high branch looking down on me. I pointed the bird out to a passing dog-walker, who enjoyed seeing it. I stood there for a while thinking maybe it would fly off and lead me to the nest. After a few minutes, it flew - but headed over the apartment buildings to the north and I lost sight of it. I started walking again, then quickly I saw two hawks coming back my way through the trees. The second hawk was smaller (and I'm making a wild guess it was the male and the same one I heard giving the alarm call). It appeared to be chasing the other, larger hawk (presumably a female - and perhaps an immature, though without binoculars just knowing it was a Cooper's was all I could confirm). At one point, as they broke from the cover of the trees into the open air above the walkway, the chasing hawk swooped down and appeared to hit the front hawk. Very quickly after that, the "chased" hawk continued on its way upstream and away from the nesting area, while the smaller, chasing hawk circled back into the trees and disappeared. My conclusion - totally speculation - is that the second hawk was an immature female (hence larger) that had wandered into the nesting pair's territory and this stimulated the alarm call and everything else I observed. I may be wrong about my conclusions - but it was a neat observation just the same. Bob ==================== Robert C. Glotzhober 614/ 298-2054 Senior Curator, Natural History [log in to unmask] Ohio Historical Society Fax: 614/ 297-2546 1982 Velma Avenue Columbus, Ohio 43211-2497 Visit the website of the Ohio Historical Society at: www.ohiohistory.org <http://www.ohiohistory.org> and check out our online collections catalog. Visit the Ohio Odonata website at: http://www.marietta.edu/~odonata/index.html <http://www.marietta.edu/~odonata/index.html> Celebrating 125 Years of serving Ohioans. ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]