Cooper's Hawk Feeding in St.Thomas

On January 21st 2007 at around 1 p.m., I was out and about when my fiance called me on my cell phone and told me that we had a bird of prey in our backyard feasting on what he thought was a squirrel. He suggested that I get home quick, I live in St Thomas 3 streets away from the Library. I was about 8 blocks from home and I was walking. I took my time, figuring that it would be great if I could photograph it, however I would never make it home in time. When I got home my fiance was standing at the door with my Cannon 30D equipped with the 70-300mm lens and directed me to the back window. Sure enough, there was a cooper,s hawk having a feast in our back yard. I tried to take a few shots through the window, however it looked awful and you couldn't see the bird.
I walked out the front door and attempted to quietly photograph this majestic bird without spooking it. I walked in slowly took a few shots, of course from where I was standing the poor thing looked like a dot. I took the step and snap method of shooting and crept as close as I could to the bird until I was close enough that I thought I could photograph him well without scaring him (about 3 metres). I stopped moving closer when he stopped eating, I figured that would be a sure sign that he was about to take off. I crouched down praying that I wouldn't fall over in the snow as I tried to steady myself against my garage. I got about 60 pictures of him in total. I chose this one because the beak is clearly visible. It was gruesome and awesome all at the same time. When I was done I stepped away slowly so as not to scare him and he stayed in our backyard for about half an hour or so until he flew off.

Robin Masse