Nature Note:Cooper's Hawk

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.

Nature Note:Red-Shouldered Hawk

I heard a close kee-yer call of a red-shouldered hawk (Buteo lineatus),but at first I couldn't locate it.Finally,something made me look straight up,and there it was in silhouette,soaring right over my head.I was walking along a northern riverine forest,well within the habitat of this species.
The red-shouldred hawk dwells in and near floodplain forests from New Brunswick,west to Minnesota and south to the Gulf of Mexico,and on the West coast from Northern California to Baja California,Mexico.
The kee-yer cry of red-shouldered hawks is often imitated by blue jays-in fact,it's a favourite trick of blue jays to play on hikers.These hawks hunt from low perches for small mammals,frogs,snakes and insects.They are slightly smaller than the red-tailed hawks so often seen along country roads.
They spend the winter as far north as Southern New England and the Ohio Valley.With the warmer winters of today,perhaps they are even wintering into Ontario now.

Ornament of Spring:The Eastern Redbud

One of the best sights of early spring is the eastern redbud,Cercis canadensis.A lover of moist soils,it is among the finest ornamental trees of North America,besides being a wildland mainstay.At this time,the tree is enlivening many a vista.The bright purple flowers emlazon the landscape from Northern Mexico up to New Jersey and Southeast Nebraska,growing to an altitude of about 2200 feet,or 671 meters.
This slender-trunked tree may reach only 40 feet/12 meters in height.The flowers are followed by flat seed pods that start to fall in late autumn,containing a number of flat,elliptical seeds.Frequently seen along slopes and roadsides,their vivid flowers make for an outstanding April journey.

What Gray Squirrels Mean

When gray squirrels appeared,I knew the property had become an urban forest.It may have been many decades since this forest wildlife had inhabited this specific tract.Now with trees approaching or at maturity,the squirrels saw a congenial habitat.It had what they need again.The denizens of this place from the time of the vast eastern forests and the passenger pigeon had come back.It would be a lot livelier with them.