While my coworker Nate Lillge was out getting coffee before the naturalist class, he caught sight of a raptor sitting in the middle of the road. He was worried about it getting hit by a car, but when a jogger went stomping by, the bird flew up into a nearby tree.

Nate called the office to let us know the bird was out there, and just before class started, he drove me over to the spot where he’d seen it. We both think it was a fledgling Cooper’s Hawk (Accipiter cooperii), and it was complaining softly all the while it was sitting up there, no doubt waiting for its parents to bring it lunch. It was a neat pre-class sighting.

CLICK HERE for the photos.