This Predator is No Alien to Campus

Look, up in the sky! It's a bird...

This summer, we can stop right there. Thanks to numerous tall trees, the Knox College campus has proven hospitable for a family of Cooper's Hawks.

We flew a couple of questions to bird expert James Mountjoy, associate professor of biology, who brought out a 100-year-old mounted Cooper's Hawk from the biology department collection, as he gave details on hawk lifestyle:

What should we look for?

The Cooper's Hawk has a long tail and short wings, which gives it the ability to maneuver accurately through small spaces in pursuit of birds, which are its main prey. There are probably several pairs nesting in Galesburg. There's a nesting pair on campus right now, and I've seen them nesting in Standish Park (adjacent to campus).

Don't we usually hear them before we see them?

At this time of year, that's the sound of the young -- a raspy screech. If there are several young, as apparently there are this year, they'll make a good bit of noise, competing with each other as they beg for food from the parents.

Some people are just positive that the hawks are hunting squirrels. And we also have a lot of crows on campus. What do the hawks really eat?

Primarily they feed on other, smaller birds. My own observation around here is that the only Cooper's Hawks going after squirrels are the young, just out of the nest, that aren't sure what they're doing. The squirrels don't seem very scared of them.