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
Everybody is somebody’s lunch. Crows around here like baby birds the best.
I’ve had MY KIDS stalked by animals TWICE
Never let them out of your sight when they are small.
A pair of cooper hawks harass my chickens from time to time. Never taken one yet (if they can)
Sometimes they sit on the coop roof waiting for the chickens to come out from cover. I’ve scared them off 10+ times in an hour. Only for them to come back.
We have a hawk in our neighborhood, too. It nabs the occasional sparrow that is attracted to the old bread we toss to them on the roof so they come close to eat [about 6 feet]. Can’t do nothing, he’s here for the duration.
Yes- circle of life. Years ago I read that raptors don’t catch the young and healthy. Don’t know how true that is, but it makes sense in the life circle. Hawks and Falcons and all were put here for a reason, I suppose. But who goes after them??
CC
Balance of nature.
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Ima be smart ass and say Wind Turbines! :0)
But it's probably eagles or other larger predator......
Sounds like an Assault Kestrel. Tell Obama and he will ban them because Congress won’t.
Interesting to watch them hunt. I've seen them take doves (Slow, also they probably taste pretty good) on a number of occasions. Quiet, then from out of nowhere, POOF! Few feathers floating in the air, and that's it. Amazes me how they can come from nowhere, and grab a dove in mid-air.
They keep the squirrel population down too. I don't think I've seen even one in the past year. Fine with me, those tree rats get into everything.
We've a buncha rabbits around though, including one of this years' (he's still fairly little) that's pretty bold - he was hopping around on our deck the other day. I told WBill Jr. not to get too attached. That spurred an interesting and lengthy conversation. :-)
We have a breeding pair that raise their young ones each year, usually three young ones. It funny when the young ones start flying and the parents are still feeding them. They are the biggest crybabies you ever heard.
All I can say is that it is a thing of beauty to see one take his hard earned prey. Especially when he does it right in front of you KNOWING you are barreling down on him with 2 tons of steel at 50-60 MPH.
The red tails hawks follow me around when I operate the haybine.I chase a lot of rabbits out of their cover and the hawks get an easy meal.
It is a beautiful thing to watch. It’s called “nature”. Not unlike watching a cheetah chase down it’s prey.
If nobody goes after a certain type of predator that makes them the top of the heap, or “apex predator”. I suspect raptors fit into that category.
CC
I’ve seen it happen with larger hawks on various mammals and also find evidence of birds taken out by smaller raptors, like the kestrel in the story, when I’m on the golf course. It’s usually just a pile of feathers on the fairway but it’s clear what’s happened. As others have noted, it’s just Nature in one of it’s less benign moments.
Not so sure about hawks & eye contact. Hawks evolved & came into our city twenty years ago having discovered our huge pigeon population.
I was walking through the college square with large oaks & overhanging branches. A hawk was perched on one maybe twenty feet away & up. His yellow predator eyes bored into mine & he would not look away. I was being sized up as a meal, I am convinced; even his beak looked like a grin.
;^)
I saw an incredible sight one evening while visiting with my brother in upstate New York. During twilight we noticed a fairly large owl swoop down and perch on a high tree limb, roughly 75 yards way from us. Since it was twilight all we could basically of it see was its silhouette. Anyway, within a minute or less, another large bird, likely a hawk of some kind, came swooping down on the owl scaring it off.
It was cool enough seeing the good-sized owl silhouetted against the darkening blue sky, let alone the attacking hawk. Since it was twilight, the owl was likely just beginning its day (or, actually night), while the hawk was likely about to retire for the night, as hawks do around dusk. The two just happened to cross paths at the right time.
While living way up north, I saw a bald eagle grab a neighbor’s small Jack Russell dog from his front yard. It was over in seconds and both were gone.
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