Guess Who Came to Dinner?

As I came around the corner of the house I heard the soft, sad thud of a bird strike on the living room window. A commotion of feathers materialized at the front door and quickly reconstituted itself into a Cooper's Hawk, who are well known for successfully hunting songbirds, especially at feeders.

Serendipitously, I was out photographing Varied Thrush in our snowy garden so hunched behind Tam's car and focused, first only on its horizontally barred tail--in order to stay as hidden as possible.

Emerging a bit more, I got shots of it eyeing the window and the ground below, hoping for its fallen prey. No luck, but it did hang out long enough for me to take more shots and a short video. It then spent a few moments in the snowy maple until it flew off, escorted eastward by the crows.