Sated Hawk

This morning when I looked out my kitchen window, this big fellow was staring back at me. He looks to me like a Cooper's hawk: at least the size of a big crow, with a barred breast and banded tail. He was perched at eye level on a perfectly horizontal dead branch, staring straight ahead. Below him on the trash can lid, a gray squirrel was jumping around, making his presence pretty obvious.

I know that these hawks can and do take squirrels, although their usual fare is feeder birds. A good-sized squirrel is going to be more of a hassle than a chickadee, for sure. Still, I think it a bit odd that the squirrel was so bold and the hawk so oblivious. Maybe the big guy was full. Or maybe, since it was Sunday, he was calling a truce.