In the heart of dowtone Toronto there is wildlife!
And there’s a raccoon on the roof of the neighbouring building waiting for leftovers!
It’s kinda cool in a savage-nature-Discovery-Channel kinda way! But overall… Ewwwwwww!
The de-feathering of the death-twitching prey was kinda funny. Hawk would take a big mouthful of feathers and spew them in a fluffy cloud (looked like a pillow fight gone horribly wrong).
I stopped watching when the big bird started eating icky, bloody bits, but it’s kept my co-workers thoroughly enthralled.
I wish there was a hawk eating a pigeon outside my window.
One time I saw a squirrel get ran over by a mini-van. It almost made it but got it from the rear tire. It twitched a little bit immediately afterward. At the time I was in highschool on my way to a basketball tournament; I don’t think that I have witnessed more maniacle laughter in my life! Then it became funny simply because it was so wrong that we thought it was so funny! Oh man, that was awesome . . .
I used to watch Peregrine Falcons take pigeons out in mid air when I worked in downtown Saint Paul. PFOOF! A small explosion of feathers would catch my eye. If you ever find yourself entering the Minnesota World Trade Center from the eastern side (near the DMV), look at the ground. You can usually find beeks and feet.
I work outdoors in New Mexico. A few months ago, I watched a familiy of quail wandering around. They were close by for over an hour. I looked away briefly. When I looked back, a hawk was eating one of the babies! It was cool to see nature up close like that, but I was thinking…gee, he couldn’t carry it away to eat? How rude!
I’ve never seen a hawk catch a pigeon, but I once watched a golden eagle make several stoops on a jackrabbit. It was like something out of a Warner Bros. cartoon; the eagle was clumsy and inept and when it came down the rabbit would just jump aside. Eventually the eagle crashed into a sage bush. As it tried to extricate itself from the bush the rabbit merrily hopped around it. Then, seeming more annoyed than scared, the rabbit hopped over to a factory parking lot and hid under a car till the pesky eagle left.
A couple weeks later I was with a birdwatching group and we were looking at whooping cranes and geese at the Bosque del Apache Wildlife Refuge south of Socorro, NM. A coyote approached the cranes and the guide said “You’re about to witness the murder of a ten million dollar bird.” However, all the cranes and geese out in the open watched the coyote carefully, ready to take off if he made the slightest move on them. Knowing this, the coyote ignored them. He made his way to a field of corn stubble where he could crouch down and hide himself from a prospective victim. A few minutes later he came out with an unfortunate goose clamped tightly in his jaws, strolled past the still wary geese and cranes in the open meadow, jumped over a stream as his prey flapped in vain, and ran off into the forest while the birdwatchers shouted “Go Wiley!”
While walking into the entrance of the student union of my university one day, I suddenly found feathers falling on me and heard some sort of shrieking. Looking up I saw a little Sharp-Shinned Hawk with its talons embedded in the breast of a Brewer’s Blackbird, both hovering ( for a second or two ) ~10 feet directly over my head as they struggled. 'twas neat :).
Also, before it fell a couple of years ago, the massive Coast Live Oak in my backyard had a huge branch sticking out at a perfect angle to watch a Cooper’s Hawk ( bigger version of the Sharp-Shinned mentioned above ) which liked to bring its captured Mourning Doves there to feed. This I might add, in the heart of a suburban cvity of 80,000, surrounded by even more urban areas ( i.e. Oakland - I live in Alameda for those who know the region ).
Try having a hawk (or some other big-ass bird) take out your sister’s dog-- right in front of you! My sister lives a million miles out in the desert, I was visiting. The first morning we were going to walk down to the mailboxes with her little Pomeranian. She forgot to turn on the coffee pot, and stepped back inside while I waited in the doorway, waching that silly ball of orange fluff cavort. With no warning, that bird swooped down, smacked into the dog with a woofing sound, got its talons into some fur, flapped around a bit and then slowly rose up into the air. It had a tough time flying, but was over a hill before I could finish calling to my sister and that was the last we ever saw of that dog. I still think she blames me, just a little bit. I swear poor Nina was sailing toward the hill before I could even register what was going on. Damned impressive, those big birds.
I once saw a blue jay attack, kill and eat the better part of two sparrows within two hours. It left blood spattered on the back planter wall. There must be a dearth of protein in my backyard.
Please, tell me the hawk had room for several more.
Evil, filthy, nasty pigeons, and I’ve thought so since tender age. Bert was always suspect for his weakness.
But they do make nice hawk food. Lately there’s been some success encouraging peregrines here in New York, and IIRC they’ve had some dramatic effects on nearby pigeon populations.
Once at my dad’s place, one of their chickens happened to be attacked by a chicken hawk (I think that is what it was). During the ensuing struggle between the two birds, the resident farm cat Frank decided that the chicken hawk looked pretty yummy. So the chicken hawk has scarely finished mauling the chicken before getting pounced on by the cat. I couldn’t believe what was going on. The bird was pretty big; probably bigger than the cat, and started to take off with the cat clinging to it but of course fell down after a few flaps. After killing the bird, Frank then dragged it off into the bushes to presumably be devoured.
If that aint the circle of life then I don’t know what is :eek:
