We have a red-shouldered hawk(s) living in a huge beech tree in my yard. She has built a nest and regularly hunts in the yard. Today, he/she was using the kids’ swingset as a perch.
Obviously, I think this is totally cool totally. My question for those of you knowledgable about such things is this: How to I keep them/encourage them? I have 2 kids and they can be noisy - is this going to be a problem (I would think so, OTOH, the bird must be ok with some noise). Is there a way to “feed” them ? Anything else I should know?
That’s awesome, you are lucky. We’ll wait for the bird experts to tell you for sure, but I would think that you should be able to leave some food out for them periodically. As for what, I don’t know. Perhaps some sort of meat? Chopped up hard-boiled egg? Cat/dog food?
Shoot some squirrels (with a pellet gun) and leave the carcasses for the hawk to fetch.
But aim for the chest. Hawks like to eat the squirrel’s brain, and might swallow the pellet if you take a head shot. Hawk might then get sick, or worse. (Pellets are made of lead.)
Oh yeah? Well I have a blue-footed booby in my cellar, and a green-assed orangutan in my pants! Yeah, it’s crowded in there.
I don’t know crap about birds, but that’s really cool. Hawks are beautiful, and I’m glad I’m in an area where I get to see some of them (and cranes!) from time to time.
Well, my parents are inadvertendly feeding a red-shouldered hawk back home. With a birdfeeder, even. Sortof. See, all these little sparrows and such just sit there on the deck railing and in the bushes by the feeder, all day long (probably too fat to fly at this point). Hawk shows up, perches on a tall tree, picks a target, dives, and… you know the rest.
So you can always try that. Set up a well-stocked bird feeder. You can birdwatch more than just the hawk, provided you don’t mind the birds becoming food at some point.
Don’t baby them, though, or try to tame them or anything. And I might actually refrain from feeding them (or at least, from feeding them often). You don’t want them to become dependent on you or to see humans as an ally, lest they get into trouble with other humans. Also, don’t forget that they are wild animals armed with serious talons and a powerful beak, so don’t piss them off. (I imagine that goes without saying, but you never know. No offense.) And congratulations, you lucky bastard! [Are bad words allowed here?] I wish there were birds of prey living right outside my house.
ETA: another probably-obvious point - don’t use mouse or rat poison, just in case
I agree that this is probably your best chance for getting your hawk friend to stay around. Keep it supplied with potential meals on wings. TikkiDad, who lives next door, has a feeder in his little back yard. The sparrows and such use my camellia bushes for hiding places in between feeder raids. Occasionally we have a sharp-shinned hawk or merlin (a falcon) pop in to try to catch a snack. The other day, one or the other (it was moving too fast for me to see which) shot through both bushes in pursuit of a meal. I don’t think it got lucky though.
In fact, I’ve never seen either of them manage to catch anything back there; birds of prey tend to strike out many more times than actually get something. But when my sister lived just down the street, we were sitting out front next to her small hawthorn tree when the sparrows chirping in it started shrieking. A sharp-shinned hawk had dived into the tree and did catch one of them. The cat that was hanging out with us jumped to within a couple of feet of it but the hawk managed to get away with its prize. The moral of the story is, if you want to encourage your hawk to stay around, be prepared for the possibility of witnessing such a scene. For me, it was pretty cool watching nature in action like that from so close, even if a bird did lose its life.
I love when a merlin or hawk sits outside long enough for me to get a good look at it from just 15-20 feet away. What handsome birds they both are!
My former place of work had a nesting pair outside that was there the last two years - I don’t know if they’ll be back or not this year. This was fairly near to a busy major road and on a university campus, so they’re ok to deal with some noise at least.
And, once word got out that they were there, the library had school groups coming in to look at the nest/hatchlings - from inside the building, to be sure, but from one side of the top floor of the building, you could get a fantastic view of the nest.
I do indeed have a very wellstocked bird-feeder (two sunflower seed feeders and 1 suet) and it’s squirrell- proof. I was thinking that that could be the attraction to Mr and Ms. Hawk - the birds set up a huge racket when the hawks are out.
Argent Towers, has anyone ever told you that you are twisted?
3)No rodent poisons around PharmBoy Estates; too many kids, pets and wildlife in the area.
I will post pictures when/if I can - Ms. PharmBoy is the wildlife photographer, though.
This link below is to a falconcam in Rochester New York. The picture refreshes once a minute. Right now the pair, Mariah and Kaver, have arrived, but no eggs are laid yet. After that one or the other will always be in the picture.
