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Old 01-28-2015, 08:57 AM   #21
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This was an interesting thread started by Brdofpray 3 years ago. Perhaps he'll help with the hawk identification.
http://www.early-retirement.org/foru...rds-59803.html
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Old 01-28-2015, 11:42 AM   #22
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Our last home was a great bird place. Twenty acres surrounded by thosands of acres of farmland, woods, few patustues. The house was in a grove of mosty fruitless Osage Orange, many wild roses on the property.

I can go over the special moments: Hummingbirds, two feeders in the fall the birds would hover all over DW as she filled them. There was a hammock by the feeders, if you stayed still and didn't move often they would land on you. Very curious birds.

Edit to add: Cardinals, had maybe 50 or more at a time queued up for the food. They're a strange bird, in the spring the males would slam into the windows from a fence 10 feet from the house. Over and over somtimes for hours straight. They would leave spots of blood on the window from their repeated attacks. They would do the same thing to the mirrors on my truck. I guess they saw a reflection and gaurded their territory.

I'd heard of snow geese, had never saw them. As I'm coming home the neighbors 80 acre field has been covered in tens of thousands of them. It really looked like 12" of snow cover. The flock would land, but often waves of them would take off, it was if they danced in the sky. Parts of the flock were always moving.

We were blessed with many turkeys they'd walk right up to the house. Couple times we watched the Toms fighting as the hens watched, unreal. Later DW is driving down the driveway she sees cute big fuzzy chickens in the tall fescue. As she foolishly followed, mama turkey shows who's in charge.

We had Great horned owls on the place frequently watched them enjoy their dinners. Same with Red tailed hawks.

The house had quite a few bird strikes. We learned if you held them in your hands and warmed them up they would recover and leave a present. We've both held hundreds of birds and brought them back. Hummingbirds, cardinals, woodpeckers and more. The Coopers hawk was one. A little Screech owl hit the house one night. We brought him in, I'll never forget his eyes. Brilliant, he got away from DW so we then had him flying around inside the house. When he hit another window I held him. As he came back, we took him outside. He perched on my bare finger for 5 minutes or more, then off into the night he went. His talons were absolutely razor sharp, but his grip so gentle.

There's probably twenty more I've forgotten.



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Old 01-29-2015, 12:46 AM   #23
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MRG, you just brought back a very fond memory for me.

Years ago, a small owl somehow got inside my enclosed porch. He exhausted himself trying to find his way back out. When my late husband and I got home and let the dogs out, one of them was way too curious about something inside the porch.

We turned on the light inside the porch and lo and behold there was a very tired little owl perched on a wicker chair. Barely keeping his balance but very watchful. I grabbed a pair of thick leather gloves, handed them to the Mister, and kept the dogs inside.

My Mister very gently talked to the little owl, then walked over close to him, and gently picked him up, cradling him with both hands. The owl never pecked or thrashed. It was tired, yes, but it trusted Mister. His voice was so soothing. No sudden movements.

He carried the little owl outside the enclosed porch and set him down on the walkway, under roof cover but open to the yard.

It was a very special moment.
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Old 01-29-2015, 08:00 AM   #24
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Freebird5825,
Thanks for sharing, great memory of the event and of your Mister. I believe events like you described are truly gifts to us.

As a PSA if you choose to handle wild birds remember they are wild. Some birds carry disease so wash thoroughly. Some are protected by federal or state law.

Our conservation department said don't touch, probably 90% didn't survive using their suggestion. DW was sad and took matters into her own hands, using her holding technique about 95% did survive.

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Old 09-09-2015, 08:36 AM   #25
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The morning show of bird seed and breakfast crowd got quite interesting today.


Young sharp shinned hawk is using my backyard bird seed bistro as a 'pick me up' place.


It zooms in, scatters the doves, towhees, sparrows and scrub jays. It will then wait in a tree for unobservant late comers in the hopes of a quick kill.


Today, a spotted towhee came late but the hawk committed too soon to a drop in and the towhee took cover in a shrub by the back fence.


Then there was a 5 minute cat and mouse game with the hawk flapping and doing hops around the shrub to scare out the towhee - which didn't work.


The hawk then actually tried to climb down thru the shrub to the towhee, but that didn't work either as the towhee would then drop down to the ground, or go back up when the hawk flew out of the shrub.


This went on for a bit, the hawk tired of the game and flew off.


The 'bistro' is now empty, no patrons, not even for the water....
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Old 09-09-2015, 08:45 AM   #26
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I've watched the sharp shins do that as well. Sparrows dive into a shrub. The hawk tries to flush one out into open air, and will take out after it. Quite a show.

About a week ago, I had a group of 5 Mississippi kites circling over low on their migration route south. Magnificent birds. Related to peregrines as I recall.
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Old 09-09-2015, 11:34 PM   #27
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We feed birds on our front porch every morning and our cat spends an hour or so watching them. Sometimes she can't restrain herself and she jumps at the window and watches them all fly off. We have mostly Dove, Blue Jays and Sparrows.


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Old 09-10-2015, 10:38 AM   #28
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It's been crazy around here. The cardinals are reproducing like mad (just when I think they are done with the 3rd set, another couple of groups come along) and are quite the seed hogs. And those young-uns are just lazy and make a lot of noise when they are waiting (quite impatiently) to be fed!
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Old 09-10-2015, 02:23 PM   #29
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We have bird feeders going all year and feed hummingbirds, too. I recommend you get a good bird book, (I like Sibley's bird books), and a good set of binoculars. Pretty soon you will be learning bird calls. I took the Master Naturalist Course this past spring and really enjoyed it. I should have been a biologist and am catching up on it now.

Then there's butterflies, and dragonflies, and wildflowers, and...
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Hawk ID?
Old 09-10-2015, 07:06 PM   #30
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Hawk ID?

I have a Droll Yankee birdfeeder which is actually squirrel proof, have videos to prove it. But I get visited by a hawk which I feel bad about since I'm feeding mostly finches, sparrows & doves, occasional grosbeak & few others. One day we are watchng as we saw a bird lirerally exploed in the air, hawk hit, took a bad cell phone pic, is it a Coopers hawk or peregrenine or something else?
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Old 09-11-2015, 04:56 AM   #31
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I'm not certain, but it looks like a Cooper's Hawk to me.
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Old 09-11-2015, 05:11 AM   #32
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I think that this is a Sharp Shinned hawk, outside my window.
They come around to eat my bird feeder birds sometimes.
Sometimes I also see larger, similar hawks that I think are Cooper's hawks.

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Old 09-11-2015, 08:02 AM   #33
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While I enjoy watching the seed eating birds at the feeder, I also enjoy watching the hawks.

Our local Cooper's Hawk (they are by far the most common around feeders) is a master at taking advantage of feeders. When it visits our yard it uses the houses as cover to surprise the smaller birds. It approaches at high speed and weaves around the houses. Sometimes it pops up over the house and comes down from above. Impressive.
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Old 09-11-2015, 07:51 PM   #34
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Originally Posted by BBQ-Nut View Post
Last evening in the deepening dusk, I heard a chirping sound coming from the back yard....turns out it was one of the red tailed hawks that live in the open space behind my house.


I snapped a couple of poor pics using my small digital camera from the kitchen window- a bit grainy cuz of the low light.




This is a Cooper hawk, note the rounded tail. Sharp shinned have square tails. Nice view.
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Old 09-12-2015, 07:42 AM   #35
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I have the feeders up all year. This year we actually had hummers all summer - they usually just pass through during their migration. I've done alot of work to have a certified Backyard Wildlife Habitat, along with an advanced Bird Habitat certificate. I'm on approx 1/3rd of an acre but you really don't even need that much space. Once the NWF starts offering the advanced Butterfly certificate I'll be getting that also. The best way to attract critters is to use native plants (aka wildflowers, akaweeds LOL). The plants attract their attention; the feeders are their bonus for stopping by.
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Old 09-12-2015, 08:32 AM   #36
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This is a Cooper hawk, note the rounded tail. Sharp shinned have square tails. Nice view.
Excellent observation and noted.

I love tidbits that serve as the tell 'tail' discriminator.

Thanks!
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Old 10-21-2015, 08:37 AM   #37
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The show had a dramatic close to the day yesterday, well, from the look of things it did.

I was sitting in the kitchen nook looking out the window late in the afternoon and the light of the setting sun hitting the tree tops when from the corner of my eye I see a cloud descending right outside the window.

But it wasn't a cloud, it was a cloud of feathers falling, softly, slowly en mass.

I surmised that it must have been from a meeting of the Cooper's hawk that hangs out along the fence line and one of the morning doves.

Going outside, I was expecting to find the hawk perched in a tree with its prey, but could not any such trace.

A minute or two passes and the hawk does swoop by and land in one of the trees in my back yard. It looks and me, I look at him, then it decides to streak away.

Going back to the pile of feathers, I examine their shape, color, and pattern and googled first what an individual morning dove feather looks like - yup.

I just hope that the remains are not on my roof which may attract other non-desirables.
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Old 12-31-2015, 10:10 AM   #38
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Was sitting in the kitchen nook and watching the birds have their morning meal after tossing out some bird seed as usual when the Coopers hawk that patrols the fence line made its morning pass.


The birds scattered and I heard a loud *THUMP* against the dining room window which also faces onto the back yard.


Went to see if it was ok, which it was and saw this imprinted on the window:



You can see the bird strike outline (morning dove)...glad to know it flew away ok.


But it did give me a chuckle.
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Old 12-31-2015, 01:48 PM   #39
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Originally Posted by BBQ-Nut View Post
Was sitting in the kitchen nook and watching the birds have their morning meal after tossing out some bird seed as usual when the Coopers hawk that patrols the fence line made its morning pass.


The birds scattered and I heard a loud *THUMP* against the dining room window which also faces onto the back yard.


Went to see if it was ok, which it was and saw this imprinted on the window:



You can see the bird strike outline (morning dove)...glad to know it flew away ok.


But it did give me a chuckle.
I'm rooting for the underdog; so glad the mourning dove got away. That imprint is funny. Maybe he was wearing the same brand helmet that Hermit was wearing when he bit the dust skiing.
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Old 12-31-2015, 01:52 PM   #40
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The birds scattered and I heard a loud *THUMP* against the dining room window which also faces onto the back yard.
This used to happen all the time to us. Often doves, but also other birds. Once I saw a passed out cardinal on the deck and eventually it woke up and flew away.

We moved the feeder away from the house for this winter, so no more window imprints for us.
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