Along a section of the Monocacy River in Northern Maryland,the riverbanks are forested,providing wildlife habitat and buffering the waterway from the intense development and agriculture just beyond.The vegetation also stabilises the banks,preventing harmful erosion here in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.Abundant small mammals such as the gray squirrel are thriving along the riverbanks and the urban forest of mature trees,both coniferous and deciduous.These small furbearers are in turn sustaining predators such as the Cooper's hawk (Accipter cooperii).
Indeed,as I make my way along the hilly Mid-Atlantic terrain of the Northern Piedmont Ecoregion just east of the northern extension of the Blue Ridge Mountains,a Cooper's hawk makes several forays against the squirrels from its perch in a large deciduous tree in a backyard.It stoops on the squirrels,but they are agile enough to evade the swift and powerful hawk's razor-sharp talons.It may take the hawk upwards of a dozen tries or more before it finally succeeds in catching breakfast.The squirrels are very aware of the hawk's presence and tactics,and are usually fast and cagey enough themselves to avoid them,so most of them will live to stash another acorn for the approaching winter.
The hawk also preys on the songbirds that inhabit the riverine and urban forest,but of course they are not as much of a meal as a squirrel would be.
The Cooper's hawk breeds from British Columbia all the way over to Nova Scotia,and south to Florida and Costa Rica,wintering as far north as New England and BC.
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