COOPER'S HAWK Karen Stromberg c. 1997 =========================== In the summer when it's hot a Cooper's Hawk spends the afternoon standing in the birdbath. He is not afraid of me. I walk out with my camera, capture his gray-white feathers, the silver curve of his beak. The sparrows perch in the hedge, thirsty and utterly silent, until the shadow of the house pulls back and he rises. None of us breathe as he clears the hedge and spirals up over the canyon, and then, we do. ======== ========