Posted on 01/04/2016 7:09:44 AM PST by bert
It is a peaceful view. The driveway sprinkled with bird seed has several birds scoffing up the freebies. There are two pairs of cardinal and several White throat sparrows pecking their way around.
One female cardinal is sort of in a huff and tries to intimidate the other female cardinal while the males watch from the bush.
The sparrows are indifferent and pay her no mind. The wren that actually lives here watches from ontop of the van tire.
Suddenly in less than the blink of an eye, it is all over. The blue gray blur strikes and captures the huffy female cardinal. It is a Kestrel. It just sits there grasping the prey and covering it with slightly out spread wings. It look around and then looks around some more.
I rush to the door and take two steps and swoosh...... it is gone. It did not release the meal, the meal was carried off
A couple of years ago we had a min pin puppy, the nicest little pup my wife’s kennel ever produced. Her name was Belle. On a cold February morning I put her out the back door to do her business, and within sixty seconds a very large barn owl had snatched her off the back patio. Never saw her again.
Nature can be quite brutal.
“Neat! A pellet gun range...”
Yeah, I used a pellet gun against squirrels and crows in my yard. Hit dozens, killed none. It was a supposedly high powered pellet gun for use against varmints. Uh-huh. The upsides is that after a year of smackin ‘em they both decided to stay out of my yard, leaving it to the small birds and my bird feeder as intended.
I live on the edge of woods and have seen the Cooper’s quite often.
The dog park I frequent is on the border of Joint Forces Training Base Los Alamitos and the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station. There are always Red Tail and I think Cooper’s Hawks picking meals on the fly(not dogs), but what really surprised me was watching Herons out in the adjoining fields waiting over gopher holes and then gobbling up the gopher when it stuck it’s head out. Funny though, we don’t feel sad when a gopher gets eaten.
We have a peregrine in our neighborhood who occasionally feasts on the local quail.
hawk swooped in on a morning dove who flew up into our massive picture window, leaving a perfect impression like the dove symbols for peace on the window- don’t know if it was oils from the bird, or just feather dust, but it was unreal- looked just like the dove symbol, but with more detail
Aint the cycle of life interesting?
Some time ago, a couple of us were staring out an office window at a bunny rabbit going across the outside lawn.
WHAM! A hawk comes from above, slams the rabbit to the ground, and starts eating it.
We had a net up for a couple years, which worked well, but we now paste on translucent stickies that work even better. They are non-distracting to us, and the birds seem to see them as well.
On the raptor topic, we can always tell if one is in the area—the birds literally freeze, until the threat has passed. From time to time, a pile of feathers appears in the yard. Unfortunate, but the circle of life.
Saw that in MN. Big beautiful baldy feasting on dead deer alongside the road. Just watched us race by.
Years ago, our family lived in a rural hilltop area. Our next door newborns had a litter of new sheltie pups sunning themselves on an outdoor deck. A red-tailed hawk swooped down to grab one of the pups. The wife happened to be by the glass door, broom in hand, when the hawk made his play. She stepped out to the deck and fought off the hawk with her broom.
I've been fortunate to witness nature's best hunters at work numerous times.
I currently have several photos taken thru my doorwall of two visits made by a local Coopers hawk while he was sitting on my deck railing......they're pretty cool.
A close friend has three Chihuahuas that she would often let out into her back yard to play.
Before I continue, a quick aside. Here in NM most home have their yards enclosed by walls. Helps keep your yard in your yard when the spring winds blow.
Anyway, she looked out her kitchen window just in time to see a LARGE eagle swoop into her yard and grab one of her darlings. Problem was the eagle misjudged the weight of the Chihuahua and didn’t achieve enough lift, slamming into the yard wall at a high rate of speed.
My friend rushed out into her yard with a broom and smacked the stunned eagle a few times until it got it’s act together and flew off.
The puppy had some really deep claw marks in it’s back and a bad case of PTSD that to this day keeps it out of the back yard.
I'm not so sure about that. I think they are 100% focused on their prey that they don't see anything else.
I had one zoom about 5 feet from my head and when I looked behind me, he nailed a dove on the sidewalk about 30 feet away........
What animals stalked your kids twice?
I always enjoy seeing a fellow predator in action!
Damn! Good thing he’s not a little bigger, you’d be in danger yourself!
i can’t feed the birds regularly here for that very reason. The hawks find it easy pickings.
In the spring, it’s really bad. All the fledglings are hopping around - not quite ready to fly. There’s a few weeks where the parents are busily feeding these little guys.
And the hawks will eat them like popcorn.
So I feed them every other month and stop as soon as I see the first baby on the ground.
(I have had the privilege of seeing some stunning hawks, though. Had one regular who was - from feet to head - at least 16 inches high. Just beautiful and fearless. I could walk up right up to him before he’d hop down the chain link fence and make some distance. He’d perch on my neighbor’s roof and wait for me to feed the birds in the morning.)
Sharp “Shinned” Hawk sorry, not skinned.
https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/sharp-shinned-hawk
Happens all the time. The most frequent victims, at my feeders, seems to be mourning doves; the predators are
Peregrines. The falcon is swift and merciful; dove necks snapped in nano-seconds.
I love my dopey, sweet, goofy doves, and since they mate for life, I watch single, widows who still stay with the returning flock.
I suppose we shouldn’t feed the wild birds. My stations, by now, are known *take-out* buffets for the predators. ;(
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