So there was an hawk in the tree earlier this morning. I found this out when I waked under the tree and he flew off, and came back, flying away again. I assumed he had something in the tree.

An hour later a look outside and see his tail in the tree. I repositioned myself in a different room, belly crawled to get a good view. Changed positions and got a better view.

Wife called me and I had to move. He flew off when I wasn’t recording.

Damn nature, you scary.

I once saw a hawk catch a pigeon mid-flight, then land on top of a telephone pole just outside my apartment, and proceed to harvest. This was in San Francisco (I lived near a park).

Hawk eating a pidgeon? That is proof positive that the work needs more hawks.

The red tails around here are very territorial. Have not seen it happen in person, but have found young golden eagles that they ripped apart, presumably at some altitude given how far apart I’ve found a wing and the rest of the carcass. I’m happy that they are not of a size to prey on us, our dogs, or our goats.

I see that just about every day here. Doves, various rodents, the occasional lizard and I’ve even seen a rabbit or two being disassembled. I quite often find a little pile of feathers underneath tree branches in my yard. I’ve even found left overs on my roof.

Cool video! Rodent control at its finest.

Same hawk and dove story here a couple of weeks ago. I was coming down the steps into the back yard and something streaked passed me, low and fast. I looked over at the spot it took off from, which was a circle of dove feathers. No head, feet, or body parts, just feathers.

 
The GHOs leave us piles of quail and dove feathers quite often (and rabbit fur, too).

I turned the volume up.
Thought I might hear what it sounds like, when the doves cry.
Do, do-dee do, do, do-dee do, ...

Feeders, and bird baths,
It's all fun and games until the raptors show up.

We've had a couple of Cooper's Hawks in the area. They really help manage the dove population, I often find feathers in my yard. Here's one very near one of my feeders.

I was mowing in my back yard and had a red tail on the ground. It was working at something and actually allowed me to get closer than I thought it would with the mower. It finally took off and had a snake in its' talons.

one year i was dove hunting in Pearsall, TX and i had to hurry to get my birds. there was a coopers hawk that was trying to get them.

quote:

Originally posted by UTsig:
We've had a couple of Cooper's Hawks in the area. They really help manage the dove population, I often find feathers in my yard. Here's one very near one of my feeders.

Apparently we both setup killing zones for them with the Feeders.

Plenty of them here, with a golf course behind us and lots of nature areas in between, Owls as well.

We have a feeder in a Ligustrum tree, kept finding the feeder on the ground and figured the tree rats were knocking it down until I watched a Hawk dive into it trying to catch a couple of Cardinals feeding.

He was flat moving, hit the feeder, bounced off the tree, and straight into one of the large windows in the back, the one I was standing behind, hit like a brick, broke nothing but his pride as he sat on the sill stunned. Cardinals dived out quickly enough into the shrubs.

Moved the feeder further into the center of the tree where it will be difficult for them to get an angle on it without hitting one of the branches.

One morning looking out the kitchen window I see a Coopers come in and nail a bird, European Collared Dove (Non native if anyone cares). Then it started tearing it apart which was pretty gruesome. After maybe 20 seconds the dove tries to fly away unsuccessfully. It was being eaten alive! Thank heaven I live in a more civilized world.

In the same spirit as slosig many years ago I was showing a test site for tree growth to several contractors. As we came around the last bend in the road a huge bird took off maybe 100 feet away. It was a golden eagle (my first sighting) and I remember the wingspan was so wide the wing tips were still going down while the rest of the wing started its upswing and vice versa. After it made altitude a Red Wing hawk took exception and dove down at the eagle. At the last possible moment the eagle did a somersault and turned out of the hawk's dive path. It was repeated several times. Later the Wildlife Biologist told me the move was not entirely defensive. The eagle is reaching out with its talons trying to nail the hawk. That was Summer of 1979 and it is still a top ten wildlife moment for me, maybe top five.

Dove is mighty tasty! I prefer mine sautéed in EVOO with fresh garlic.

I saw something interesting a few weeks back, a rough looking road runner was in my yard ( I have several low to the ground shrubs that a lot of smaller songbirds hide in between trips to my feeder)
Road runner stealthily slinked towards those bushes then bam has a song bird for breakfast

quote:

Originally posted by Mr.Brooks:
One morning looking out the kitchen window I see a Coopers come in and nail a bird, European Collared Dove (Non native if anyone cares).

Good on the Coopers hawk. The collared dove is an invasive species. At least here in AZ, they are bullies, pushing out our native Mourning and White Wing doves. While there is a very tight hunting season on the two native species, for the Eurasian Collared dove, it is open season year round with no bag limit.

on a related note, cultivating potted herbs should be much easier this season with all the cats running around culling out the bunny wabbits, which are known to feast on fresh parsley

On a dove hunt I saw a hawk trying to bag a quail.
The jinking that quail did between bushes with the hawk mirroring his moves made ANY man made dogfight look absolutely boring in comparison! It was one of the most impressive natural things I’ve ever seen.