08/18/2026
Imagine my surprise when I arrived on the campus of Spartanburg Community College today to get ready for the nursery operations lab I'm co-teaching this Fall to find this little guy in the greenhouse. 😳 I've never seen a Cooper's Hawk up close and personal, so I was both fascinated -- and a little scared. 😂 I was also worried. The heat index today was 106 degrees, and it is much, much hotter in the greenhouse. I had no idea how long he'd been in there, but it was clear he was having a hard time figuring out how to get out - even though the doors of the greenhouse had been open all day since it was so hot. I'm assuming he went inside to go after a mouse 🐁 or snake 🐍 (shudder) and got stuck. I tried to shepherd him towards the door, but he was freaking out, flying all over the place, and bumping against the greenhouse plastic. He was also panting. So, I put down some dishes of water and another instructor sprayed a big puddle on the floor in the hopes he'd drink some of it.
We left him alone for a while, but when I came back, he was still there. I couldn't leave him there to suffer the heat, so I put on two pairs of gloves and grabbed a towel from my truck to try and catch him. I'm not going to lie - I was a little terrified, but I was determined to help the little guy out. I entered the greenhouse from the end opposite of where he was located. He immediately saw me and started flying around. He was so close to the door, but he wasn't going out. He landed on a table right next to the door, and I started walking towards him holding the towel in front of me preparing to throw it over him. He was staring right at me, and I didn't know whether he was going to fly at my face or start panic-flying again. Right as I was about 6 feet away from him, he turned, looked directly out the door - realizing it was the way out - looked back at me, then flew away to freedom. I'm so glad he escaped -- and even more glad I didn't get scratched to shreds. 😂
Ah, horticulture. There's never really a dull day, and that's what I love about it.
