Mike in the Wild

There is one thing all the books neglect to tell you in their instructions on how to attract songbirds to your backyard and its feeders: your efforts also invite the predators of these birds.  Over the past few weeks I've observed a juvenile Cooper's hawk visiting the section of block wall where I periodically place sunflower seeds for a colorful pair of northern cardinals.  But the youngster is not interested in mere kernels; he's got his sharp eyesight set on a feathered meal. I've written quite a lot about the unwelcome visitors my bird feeding efforts have attracted like the hordes of mourning doves and house finches.  Well it turns out that the doves are actually a favorite food for hungry Cooper's hawks.  So I may have inadvertently stumbled upon  a natural solution to my pesky problem with the marauding seed-eaters.   There was a span of a few weeks where I daily counted at least seven or eight mourning doves lurking vulture-like in wait for han...