Driving up to the house, saw this guy stuck.



Attempted to unstick him by getting him to climb on the shovel with no luck.



Unfortunately, didn’t have someone to video the next thought, if you could call it a thought. Put the phone away, lifted the shovel over and behind his head, then whacked the tar weed plants that were stuck to his tail. I wasn’t quick enough with the phone to catch him in close flying off with some green still stuck to him, but here he is as he gained some altitude.




And another bird bonus, a gaggle of turkeys. This is fun, as the Moms rarely seem to hang onto this many babies. Usually between the bobcats and coyotes, if they manage to hang onto one or two they’re lucky.

Good on you sir. You are an excellent steward.

Indeed, good on you!

I’d not known of tar weed plants before.

“One benefit of not being ABLE to weedeat our big field, is that the tarweed growing naturally there, is allowed to bloom!  I love the soft yellow glow coming from this lower area below the garden, and the fragrance is unbelievable!…”

https://sierrafoothillgarden.c...vagrant-tarweed/amp/

GOOD JOB!
Kudos to you!

Wow great work saving the hawk!

Unfortunately there's still time to loose a few of those little turkeys but it's good they survived this long.

Good work! I enjoy my bird friends.

Good rescue! Thank you.

He would have starved to death if you hadn't helped.

Good job.

Very cool, nice work!

About tarweed, and its stickiness:

https://ucanr.edu/blogs/bugsqu....cfm?tagname=tarweed

I hope that hawk learned his lesson. It wouldn’t surprise me to learn that small critters shelter in tarweed for protection from birds of prey.

quote:

Originally posted by Mars_Attacks:
He would have starved to death if you hadn't helped.

Good job.

If a coyote or bobcat didn’t get him. It was really just luck.

I’m sure glad that hitting the plant away from his tail freed him. He seemed to relax a bit as I spoke to him, trying to be soothing and calm, but I didn’t get the impression that he’d have liked me trying to come behind him , trap his wings to his body, then try to handle him.

This was definitely a case where it was better to be lucky than good. I’m just glad it worked out.

ETA:

quote:

Originally posted by ridewv:
Unfortunately there's still time to loose a few of those little turkeys but it's good they survived this long.

Possibly, but at this point, if one gets remotely close, while the adults walk away, the little guys take flight. They are definitely harder targets than they were a month ago.