I have been blaming house cats

Evil Eye Earl

Evil Eye Earl

Joined
Feb 18, 2006
Messages
2,150
for this.




but 30 minutes ago my wife called me to the back yard
and said a bird was killing another bird....I grabbed the camera on the way out,got a brief glimpse about 5 seconds.
It was a mature male Sharp- Shinned Hawk 10 feet away,now I will be on the look out,
to take a picture of him.
We had 15 Doves in the back yard,now there are 5,he averages about one a day,good thing the doves breed a lot around here.
I first noticed the scattering of feathers about two years ago and
no other remains, the reason I thought it was a cat,I watched as he flew off through the trees with the dove.

I live in Irving ,Texas.
 
sorry about your doves, but its survival of the fittest. We have several large owls that live on our farm and i'd like to catch one of them on camera swooping down on a bird or snake:thumbup:
 
I have been having a problem like that except it's with baby rabbits. I have found the rear half of very small rabbits on my back patio. I suspect that it's a cat that's doing this. It could be a raven, but I doubt that they would leave rabbit parts that close to my house.

We used to find dead or dying mice and moles on our front porch when we lived in the PRK. I saw the cat that was leaving us "presents".
 
Yes raptors are predators !! I heard an interesting story of a falconers golden eagle killing an 80 lb german sheperd !! The dog thought the eagle would be easy pickings !
 
We have plenty of hawks and owls in our yard here, and I even saw an eagle once cruising low while looking for meat along the railroad that runs behind our property. We really enjoy hearing the owls talking to each other at night and the hawks calling in the daytime. These birds are among the reasons our cats stay in the house at all times. Have you noticed that anytime movie makers want you to believe the scene represents a wild area they dub in the sound of hawk calls? Hawks are all over our neighborhood and up, down, and flying across the streets almost anytime I go out. :D
 
In my case it's happening an night or very early in the morning. I have seen hawks and owls around my back yard. I guess it could be an owl that's munching on the bunnys, but why would leave it half eaten?

I have also found quail parts, but there isn't much left of them. Just a few bones and maybe a wing.
 
about 2 weeks ago, i found the bottom half of a baby deer in our backyard, i think coyotes got to it. i had just seen it running through our back woods with its mom the day before, wasnt bigger than a small dog. my mom and sisters were feeling sorry for it and whatnot, and i was like "well, if you had found a coyote starved to death in the backyard, wouldnt you be sad to?" its just the way of nature, i for one find it fascinating and amazing.
 
Last summer just after getting out of my car after returning home from work, a Perigrine Falcon knocked a dove down onto our driveway not more than 15 feet away from my. The falcon landed in our front yard for a few second before bounding back to the dove. The stunned dove mustered up enough of a reaction to fly across the street as the falcon was bearing down again. The falcon got the dove after it had crossed the street and made a final short flight to a yard 2 houses down.

Nature sure has so fine machines. I am always amazed by raptors. I feel fortunate that I have been able to see a few wild birds do their thing in person, but the falcon incident was hands-down the coolest. That was my first falcon sighting. The falcon reminded my of Dalton from Roadhouse, because I 'thought he'd be bigger.' :D
 
In the summer of 2001 I was working police/fire dispatch in the town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, which has become a mecca for tourists from all over the world. I received a call from a tourist who was at one of the waterfront restaurants wanting to report snatching of his credit card from his hand while he was seated at a waterfront restaurant. He also reported that he still had the thief in sight. The tone of his voice sounded like a combination of concern and embarrassment, and as the conversation progressed, here's the story that came out.

For background, the caller and his wife were visiting from the US and were eating lunch on the outdoor deck of the restaurant. You enter the restaurant from the street and walk to the back that faces onto the harbour where the deck is located. The building sits on a hill so the deck is on the second floor at that side, overlooking the street that parallels the harbour. On the other side of the street is the parking lot for the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic.

The couple had eaten their lunch, received the bill, and were waiting for the waitress to return so they could pay. The caller had pulled out his credit card (platinum) and was holding it between his index and middle fingers as he talked to his wife, apparently turning it back and forth. The sun was reflecting off the card and, unknown to our hero, it was attracting some unwanted attention from the perpetrator.

The couple were seated at a table near the railing closest to the street. Without warning, what he described as, "... the biggest f**king raven I've ever seen in my life", landed on the railing, fixed him with one eye in that way that only ravens can, plucked the credit card from between his fingers, gave him one more look, and flew off. It landed on the peak of one of the museum buildings where he could see the flash from the card as the raven enjoyed playing with its shiny new prize. As I was speaking to the complainant, the bird flew off out of sight, and I assisted him in cancelling the card.

Several pigeons were questioned as well as some crows, but the conclusion was reached that the raven was some hooligan from out of town.

To view the scene of the crime, go to the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic website and look at the picture at http://museum.gov.ns.ca/fma/new-frames-master.html . The bird landed on the roof peak closest to the harbour on the rightmost of the big red buildings. The restaurant is just out of sight off the right hand margin of the picture.
 
LOL! Great story, Whynacht! Welcome to the forum. I had a similar experience while on vacation with my wife in Big Sur, California, back in the early nineties.

Big Sur is on the Pacific Coast south of Carmel and Monterey. It is about as far south as you can find Redwoods. Even today, it is absolutely overrun with hippies. (Makes Seattle seem like Salt Lake City!)

We were sitting on the deck of a waterfront resturant and I was venting about everybody pushing vegan this and vegan that at me. This place was not billed as a health food resturant. In rebellion, I ordered a huge steak, very rare. After dinner, I had to ask for the waiter to bring out some Sweet & Low for my coffee. (This prompted another lecture about evil chemicals and whatnot!) When they brought it out, I lifted up an envelope while grousing to my wife about the preachy waitstaff when a Stellar Jay swooped down, snatched the little pink envelope from my fingers, and flew off into the rafters of the covered part of the deck. It proceeded to tear open the packet, consume the contents, then fly around the tables in a very excited fashion! We were both stunned. I took out another packet, showed it to the bird and asked, "Is this what you want?" Instantly, another Jay attacked from behind, taking the packet and racing around. This provoked the first bird, who noisily gave chase! Maybe I'm a slow learner; maybe was enjoying this a little bit, but soon the little dispenser was out of all of the little pink and blue envelopes and several Stellar jays, as well as house sparrows were rampaging around the deck. Soon the whole place erupted into bedlam! Tourists who had seen "The Birds" started freaking out. Birds were fling into the main resturant, and I had a huge smile of satsifaction while I enjoyed my coffee, looking out on a beautiful sunset over the Pacific Ocean!

FLIX
 
Thanks FLIX for the welcome and the story of sweet revenge. When Nature hands you a chance like that, it's totally impolite to turn it down. I have a story of that sort too, but telling it here might be misconstrued as highjacking the thread because it doesn't involve REAL birds. A shitbird yes, but not a feathery one. We might need a "Sweet Revenge" thread.
 
I had red tail Hawks nesting by my house. The juvinile hawks came around looking for food. They sound just like stepping on a squeaky toy.
I saw one just outside the kitchen window and was watching it as a squirrel came into view scampering across the ground. The young hawk flew down toward the ground and the squirrel actually turned around and took the thing on. They never made contact, but it was a blast to watch. The hawk would fly up about 5 ft and decend on the squirrel and it would turn to face the hawk and the hawk would abort. It went on for a couple minuets and the hawk finally gave up.
 
a few years ago when i had a layoff i would take the 2 dogs down to the park-2 peregrine falcons would follow my truck when i pulled in,then they would stay in the trees just above the one dog roscoe,he has a thing for mice and moles- i would watch them follow him all the way around as he mad his journey -after a few weeks i could get within 10 feet or so without bothering them -
i always figure roscoe scared up some food for them when he beat thru the bush's or they really like him-lol
 
We have quite a few hawks that frequent the area where I work. There used to be a racing pigeon club that would release their pigeons just outside our gate. They finally gave up when the hawks made a ritual of feasting on their pigeons.
Every time a co-worker saw a hawk at work, he would say..."I wish I had my rifle... I'd blast that S.O.B. to kingdom come!" "Yeah but it's illegal to shoot 'em and besides... you might just hit one of those gasoline storage tanks"... I'd always say! Seems he hated hawks with a real passion. Then I found out when he was a kid he witnessed a hawk 'swoop' down and carry off his little puppy.
Just last week there was a dead rabbit in the road as I was going out to the store. When I came back, the rabbit was gone. I thought my neighbor must have removed it or the crows had cleaned it up. Later that afternoon I looked out the window and there was a pretty good sized hawk (don't know what type but he was larger than a crow) in the middle of my lawn tearing what was left of that rabbit to bits. I was surprised that he was eating rabbit road kill... always thought they ate fresh kill?
 
Clydetz said:
We have quite a few hawks that frequent the area
I was surprised that he was eating rabbit road kill... always thought they ate fresh kill?
Click to expand...

Hawks and Eagles will eat road kill or carrion,Falcons usually eat
what they kill.

That is one of the reasons the Golden and Bald Eagle were and still are maligned for eating sheep,they usually did not kill the sheep but were eating a sheep that died or was killed by something else.

There is a stretch of hwy 287 ,farm land between Childress and Decater ,Texas
that during the winter 100's of Hawks ,buzzards,coyote's,bobcats and other
varmits are killed by car and truck.
The medium is 200 feet wide between the four lane road,rabbits are thick
in the grasses and get run over when they cross the road .

Then the other animals and birds are killed while eating road kill
or hunting.

Most of the hawks were inmature Redtails that I have stopped and looked at.
 
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