Rabbits Down!

[Owen]

Right before it got cold this year, I was out bush hogging. I was coming up on a clump that I always chase some rabbits out of, when I noticed the local giant red tail hawk sitting on a telephone pole.

I thought to myself, "ooh, this should be good!"

So I drive the tractor into the brush, two or three cottontails come screaming out, and the hawk pounces! But no where near the rabbits? It turns out that it grabbed one of the feral kittens that the neighbor insists on breeding. The hawk flew up towards a different perch, when the cat spun around andstarted clawing at it, resulting in the hawk dropping the dumb thing, about 30 feet, I'd guess. The hawk then just circled around, picked that kitten up again, and went to the perch it was headed for originally.

Well, that's a cat won't have to shoot off of the bird feeder!

Wish I had video of the incident.

 

[MCgunner]

I've met two falconers in my life. One's a friend of my brother-in-law. He's been into it since his childhood and my BIL lets him have the roam of his 400 acre ranch near Kenedy (yes, with mineral rights) when he brings his birds. The other was a guy in a show we were "actors" in at our former church in Corpus. The show is at Christmas and is known as "The Boar's Head" and this guy had a Harris' hawk hooded on his shoulder. We were playing "woodsmen" (wife and I}. Anyway, the bird was a hit in this one. This guy makes his living as the "bird guy" at the Texas aquarium. Now, I did wonder what birds had to do with ocean fishes, but I left that one alone.

I was lucky enough to be looking out a window when a peregrine nailed a rock squirrel in my front yard, just off from the porch. He spent maybe ten or fifteen minutes on lunch before leaving.

Two instances since we moved to the woods between Rock Island and Sheridan, Texas. Kinda wild out here and there's lots of hawks, owls, and such. Lost two chickens so far, but that's the price you pay for Utopia, I guess.

A couple weeks ago I was sitting watching our bird feeder. The chicadees, the wrens, the cardinals, the titmouses (titmice?) were all fighting over the feed and a sparrow hawk comes out of nowhere right at my window and snagged one of the feeding birds, stopped before he hit the window and flew off with it.

THEN, same feeder and birds, a friggin' OWL, looked to be a barred owl, flew the same flight path several days latter as I was watching said birds. Feathers flew everywhere, he stopped just before the window and flew back to a tree to eat.

So, I'm thinkin' about putting burglar bars on this one window, but not to deter burglars....

We have lots of owls, barred, barn, great horned, even screech owls out here. I hear that one near sundown from my box blind back in the back. MAN, I haven't heard a screech owl since I moved to the coastal scrub oaks in Calhoun County from Brazoria after getting laid off from Dow Chemical in '82 and getting a new job. It's good to be back in the woods....

Lots of Peregrines down in Corpus. On my trips out to big bend in the past, a favorite destination via motorcycle when I was younger, I never saw one. Moved to Corpus and finally lay eyes on one over at Aransas, actually, sitting on a pier as we crossed on the ferry. Go figure....turns out they migrate through there and the birders out-number the birds that time of year. I never knew this. That bird guy in the play told me about it, so we drove down there and sure 'nuf we found one.

 

[MCgunner]

Oh, one more sighting I recall on a trip out to big bend country. Actually, we were headed for a ranch near Presidio, Texas. We're driving along and a golden eagle is flying over the road. We stop and watch the action through the windshield off Hwy 90 somewhere around Sanderson. Anyhow, this territorial red tail was chasing this eagle out of his territory. He'd swoop down on the eagle and the eagle would just roll over on his back talons up. Nope, not messin' with THAT! The red tail, a quarter that eagle's size it seemed, would veer off and come around for another pass, same thing. He did this 3 or 4 times until, I guess, the eagle was out of his territory. THAT was fun to watch!

 

[MCgunner]

BTW, the cottontail looks yummy, but you can keep the jacks.

 

[Elinay@Survivalops]

So awesome, they are amazing. Fastest thing in the Sky!

 

[Pilot]

Very cool. Really beautiful birds.

 

[double bogey]

Here in town we have been overun with white wing doves in the last 10 years or so. We also have a good year round population of Coopers hawks to feed them. We also get several more speceis that stop or stay in the winter.
My daughter was outside and noticed feathers falling from the live oak in my front yard. She called me and said why is this bird pulling out his feathers? Look closely, they aren't his, the belong to the dove he is eating.
I hunted quail for a few years around Archer City, and the first year we had the lease they were unable to harvest the wheat due to weather damage. Wheat lay on the ground like dirt, the rat and mouse population was huge, and the migrating hawks stayed all season. You could see multiple hunting hawks in the air all day long. If you winged a quail and he went more than 50 yards or so, a hawk would get it before you could. It was like calling them when you fired. Watching birds of prey successfully hunting is way cool. I couldn't imagine the time you have to spend with them.