Just outside the living room window of our Littleton, Colorado, farmhouse is a cluster of juniper shrubs. Dark-eyed juncos often feed beneath those shrubs during the colder months and are frequently joined by a few cottontails.
On this cold, foggy morning along the Front Range, I was watching the news when I heard a crash and a loud squeal outside that window. Peering through the fog, I saw a large accipiter within the shrubs, stomping on an apparent victim; alas, it was a northern goshawk and one of the cottontails would be his breakfast. The raptor moved the lifeless rabbit out onto the snow to enjoy his feast but returned to cover when I attempted to get a photo.
Northern goshawks are permanent residents of coniferous and mixed forests across Alaska and Canada and southward through the Western mountains and the Northeastern U.S.; their range expands during the winter months when a small number usually turn up along the Front Range urban corridor. This morning's visitor was only the third I have ever seen on the farm; lucky for me but not so lucky for the cottontail!
On this cold, foggy morning along the Front Range, I was watching the news when I heard a crash and a loud squeal outside that window. Peering through the fog, I saw a large accipiter within the shrubs, stomping on an apparent victim; alas, it was a northern goshawk and one of the cottontails would be his breakfast. The raptor moved the lifeless rabbit out onto the snow to enjoy his feast but returned to cover when I attempted to get a photo.
Northern goshawks are permanent residents of coniferous and mixed forests across Alaska and Canada and southward through the Western mountains and the Northeastern U.S.; their range expands during the winter months when a small number usually turn up along the Front Range urban corridor. This morning's visitor was only the third I have ever seen on the farm; lucky for me but not so lucky for the cottontail!
