Cooper's hawks

For the past couple of months our neighborhood has echoed with the cries of Cooper's hawks. There are four or five of them at the moment -- at least three are youngsters. You can usually hear them in the morning and late afternoon or early evening calling to each other. They often stand atop the power poles, watching for birds that they can pick off in flight:

When we hear them calling out to each other we often find them in the sycamore trees that line our neighborhood streets:

That doesn't mean they can do whatever they want, though. The crows give them a hard time, and mockingbirds are certainly not afraid of them, either:

Having the hawks in the neighborhood puts an interesting contrast to the mix of songbirds (finches, sparrows, phoebes) that are common here in southern California.

(Pictures 1-3 used the Nikon D300 with a Nikon 300mm f/4 lens. All pictures used +0.7 exposure compensation because of the dark bird against a bright background. Picture 1: shutter-priority mode with shutter speed set to 1/2500 sec; camera chose f/4; ISO 400; auto white balance; normal JPG. Picture 2: shutter-priority mode with shutter speed set to 1/2000 sec; camera chose f/4; ISO 400; auto white balance; normal JPG. Picture 3: shutter speed set to 1/320 sec; camera chose f/9; ISO 800; normal JPG. Picture 4 used the Nikon D200 with a Nikon 300mm f/4 lens. Program-mode; camera chose 1/320 sec at f/10; ISO 100; normal JPG.)