Ed Deal from Seattle’s Urban Raptor Conservancy presents “Urban Raptors: Seattle’s Adaptable Cooper’s Hawks” at the next Olympic Peninsula Audubon Society meeting set for 7 p.m. Wednesday, April17, in the Rainshadow Hall at the Dungeness River Nature Center, 1943 W. Hendrickson Road.

Thirty years ago, birding experts note, Cooper’s Hawks began colonizing urban and suburban landscapes throughout the U.S., developing a tolerance for living in proximity to humans. In 12 years of recent study, their population in Seattle has tripled. Deal will provide insights into these common but elusive raptors.

The meeting is free to attend.

After taking a hawk identification class in 1991, Deal went on to volunteer on fall migration hawk banding projects all over Washington state and beyond. He has more than 30 years of experience studying and banding Peregrine falcons in the San Juan Islands and the concrete wilderness of Seattle.

For the past 12 years, he has also worked with a group of volunteers studying the expanding urban population of Cooper’s Hawks in Seattle.