Red tailed hawk close encounter

[phall0106]

A couple of years ago, at a gardening seminar I attended, one of the sessions was on predators. The guest speaker (I think it was Jack Hanna, but I could be entirely incorrect on that) had several animals with him. One was a hawk (which had unfortunately been hit by a car and couldn’t fly, so there was no possibility of it being released again). What I recall most was the incredible size of it’s talons, as well as the bird itself. I’ve seen them perched on telephone poles, and in trees, all of the time as I’m driving down the highway, but to see one up close, it was magnificent. As was the great horned owl he brought with him. Very eerie when a bird like that owl looks you right in the eye. You just know he’s thinking, “Yeah, I could take you.” And he probably could.

Oh, this just reminded me–the other day, I just happened to be looking out the living room window and caught a flash of something out of the corner of my eye. It was a huge hawk across the street at my neighbor’s fence. It perched on the fence for awhile, looking into the neighbor’s yard, then flew away. That neighbor has a small yappy dog that is frequently let outside. I wonder if the hawk was looking for lunch?

[Common_Tater]

@Renee

I’m amazed that Red Tails are a protected species. They’re about as common as sparrows around here (Missouri.) You see them on every third telephone pole.

We were losing hens to them, too (full sized birds) and ended up stringing fishing line over the large run, which was effective in stopping them.

Edit: I just looked, and Audubon doesn’t say anything about them being a protected species. Are they?

http://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/red-tailed-hawk

Years ago, Audubon used to sponsor Coopers Hawk hunts, because they eat almost exclusively small (and cute, natch) songbirds. Hm.

A buddy of mine is a naturalist and managed to somehow have a park bird clamp through his gloves with her talons and happened to be alone at the time, it was not, as I understood it, to be a pleasant experience. He experienced heavy scarring and nerve damage etc. This whole business of “connecting” with wild animals, particularly predators, is bunch of nonsense.

[Count_Blucher]

@Xema

Where’s “here” for you? They seem plentiful in most places I go, pretty much throughout the US (and southern Canada in summer).

You know, I was so busy that I almost forgot to ask: where’s here for you?

[purplehearingaid]

@MacTech

That’s exactly what I told her, the hawk was being a hawk, an apex predator, no matter how friendly and adorable the little Bantam hen was, and she was, super freindly, adorable and a reliable egg layer, the hawk did nothing wrong

To Mom’s credit, she has softened to the hawk a bit, has forgiven it, accepted it has done nothing wrong, and in fact remarked on how cute the hawk was and wished we could have kept it as a pet as well…

The thing I found so memorable about this experience was how I felt a kind of… connection to the hawk, it was nearly docile with me and I felt an almost “telepathic” connection with it, if I believed in stupid, illogical spiritual crap, I’d almost say that that hawk could have been my “spirit animal”

The hawk may had been able to pick up your vibes and not feel threaten by you .

[Xema]

@Count_Blucher

I was so busy that I almost forgot to ask: where’s here for you?

Central PA. But I travel a fair bit.

I was in NJ over Thanksgiving - and saw a RTH dive on something in the median of a highway (didn’t get it).

[Xema]

@MikeF

Just a couple of weeks ago I had the privilege, while flying my glider, to share a thermal with two Red tails, a Golden Eagle and a Bald Eagle.

Now that is very cool.

Where was this? And what model was the glider?

[Count_Blucher]

@Xema

Central PA. But I travel a fair bit.

I was in NJ over Thanksgiving - and saw a RTH dive on something in the median of a highway (didn’t get it).

Rt 80.

You were lucky… but as recently as 3-4 years ago you might have seen 4-5 along your route.

[August_West]

Our local PBS outdoors show had a segment on falconry a few weeks back. They had a few falconers and their birds out on a rabbit hunt.

The main thing that stood out to me was this one particular male falconer. His left earlobe looked like a mass of half-chewed gristle hanging from his head. I can only imagine how many beakings that thing must have taken to get that appearance. Put me right off of any thoughts of falconry.

[StGermain]

MacTech - He was probably so immobile because it was dark out. Most birds don’t fly at night. Like putting a cover over a canary cage.

Falconers cover a bird’s head with a hood to quiet them. In the old days, they used to sew their eyelids shut in the taming process.

StG

[Turek]

@Renee

Edit: I just looked, and Audubon doesn’t say anything about them being a protected species. Are they?

I know you answered your own question, but here’s a list of protected species, including RTHs:

Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 | U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

[notfrommensa]

The interstate Highways around here (St Louis to Memphis) have RTH perched on the adjoining fence posts about every mile or so in the Winter. I once counted 60 of them on a 45 mile trip. I figure they are dining on the mice and rats who are living of the garbage being thrown from the traffic.

[Common_Tater]

For my money, the Golden Eagle is the one to see. They are huge, and very impressive. Out West, where everything is bigger.

[teela_brown]

I was recently driving in downtown San Jose, behind a skyscraper and its down-at-heels parking lot. The parking lot has a pile of construction rubble in it, and as I drove past I saw a fast movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked - it was a peregrine falcon, and it had stooped at and caught a rat that was on top of the pile of rubble. It stayed perched there, hopping on one leg, for several seconds and I got a good look at it.

The peregrine was a gorgeous thing, all slaty blue-gray with big black teardrop marks near its eyes. I was surprised to see that it had caught a rat, as I always thought that they preyed exclusively on birds on the wing. I Googled up some facts when I got to the office and saw that they did indeed occasionally take rodents. But they really prefer birds, which is why you can see peregrines in big cities, as pigeons are fat and plentiful, and there are skyscrapers with ledges and decks to nest on.

[jsc1953]

Additional trivia: any movie, TV show or commercial that wants to set a “out in the wild” mood, puts the cry of the red-tailed hawk on the soundtrack. It’s become the generic raptor-noise.

[China_Guy]

What does the chicken victim of a red tailed hawk look like? I ask because today one of my flock of 7 was killed and partially eaten. Probably when I was taking my kids to school as I didn’t hear anything. A whole batch of feathers in one spot, another batch of feathers and the body about 10 feet away. Entire neck was about half eaten, and the shoulder was about half eaten.

The other 6 chickens acted completely normally and not in the least bit traumatized. Hakuna matata mode. 5 of the 6 survivors laid eggs.

We had had a Saint Valentine’s day massacre earlier when a raccoon (or more than one) got four of our chickens. The rest were completely traumatized. First they were all cowering and not moving when I found them one by one and moved them back to the coop. They stopped laying eggs for about 2 months.

So, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t a raccoon. Certainly wasn’t a dog and pretty sure not a cat. Does this sound like a raptor or owl? Any other guesses from this vague description?