Standing on the old bridge over one hundred feet above a ravine. Late afternoon and overhead a Cooper's Hawk glides away towards the setting sun. The blue sky taking on the warm glow of evening. The Hawk silhouetted as are the crows that are harrassing rentlessly the Hawks journey. The Hawk seems unusually stoic as he runs the gauntlet of attacks. They diminish in the distance
I turn around and look up the ravine. There, landing on a tall snag of a branch is a female Cooper's Hawk. She lands and her head immediately begins the stop/start scanning processes.
I get it. The husband draws away the crows and blackbirds while the wife glides stealthily in for a chance at an evening meal.
I watch her scan, look and reposition herself.
Unexpectedly the Husband comes in for a slightly unsteady perch right next to her. He looks a bit ruffled from his part of the ruse.
After steadying himself he turns his head and beak toward his wife and tilts his head. she turns to him and bobs her head.
I could see it right away.
He saying
"You haven't got anything? After the beating I took to give you a clear field to hunt?"
She saying,
"I just got here my self. It's not like there is something waiting to be eaten"
Then they turned and looked out at the expanse. Time passed and unceremoniously he leaned forward, wings spread and glided off. He caught a thermal and soon was a speck.
She left just a minute or two behind him and flew to another tree, waited and then glided off home.
Only the warm glow of the Sunset remained.