3 new birds and dive bombed by a Cooper's hawk!

I got back from North Dakota yesterday and have to report on my birding success! I managed to get three new birds. The two that I posted about last time (Leconte's sparrow and Nelson's sharp-tailed sparrow) and the third was a Baird's sparrow. These were tough to get, so I am really glad it worked, because I may not be back to North Dakota for a long time! But beyond the new birds, the highlight was spotting a male and female Cooper's hawk and getting to see them really close up. At first I wasn't sure why they were staying put and not flying off, but as I walked a bit further down this trail by a small creek, the male dive-bombed me! That's when I realized they had a nest nearby. I got incredible looks at both birds, with the sun at my back and nothing in the way, and only maybe 30 feet from me with 10x binocs. The red eyes were penetrating! But when the male dived at me, I actually had to duck and hold up my binocs. He veered off when he was a few feet away, but it was enough to make me scoot. Times like these remind me of why I get up early and go out and hike and birdwatch. If you go, you never know if you will see anything exciting or different. But if you don't go, you know for sure you will not! And often enough you do see something really special, and that is enough to make you keep at it.