Posted on 07/17/2011 3:19:05 PM PDT by JoeProBono
We’re talking hawks, not falcons. I’ve seen hawks take full grown swamp rabbits from my back yard, which are the size of a cat. Some csts instinctually don’t fight when they are grabbed from the scruff of the neck.
“He checked out fine, other than some minor cuts, scrapes and bruises..”
No deep puncture wounds...just what was the hawk doing to that cat!?
Freegards
This story is BS. The BEST I would concede is that the Red Tail flew at the cat, grappled, failed reflight, and left -- and the cat panicked and ran away for a few days. That's as far as the physics will allow.
Hawks are considered falcons for falconry purposes, so I use the term interchangably. Bear in mind that falcons (including hawks) are generally able to take prey twice their weight at a maximum, so your swamp rabbits will need to be 8 to 10 pounds maximum, for a female Red Tail. A male Red Tail clocks in at 3 lbs max, they can handle up to 6 lbs.
Could she have mistaken an eagle for a hawk? Would an eagle go for a big cat?
More evidence that, at best, there was a grapple, a release, and a very scared hiding-from-everything cat.
Eagles don’t habitat in New York, but a cat would be relatively easy prey for Golden or Bald Eagles, yes.
Hey, you could be wrong about this. Why can't you stand cats when they can be such sweet and loving creatures? Maybe you need to rethink this and give them a chance.
Hate predator birds.
If it was left up to me, they’d all be left to go extinct.
Slight correction to my above: Eagles do not habitat in New York CITY. Not sure about New York STATE as a whole, they may.
You need to be careful about the age of the bird you take. Too old, and it won't train. Too young, and it will imprint and become a screecher (a noisy pain-in-the-ass).
Back in the mid Eighties, I was on leave and visiting my Brother and his family in North Carolina. We had eaten dinner and were having dessert when all hell broke loose on the front porch...it sounded like a massive cat fight in progress but only lasted a few moments.
We all headed out front, and found their cat Marbles, cowering on the front porch and bleeding from her belly. My brother and I quieted the cat while my sister in law got ready to go to the vet. The cat was calm until out of the dark and the top of a nearby tree, an owl hooted...and the cat just about went nuts with panic.
Turned out she had a neat set of puncture wounds that only broke the skin where the owl had grabbed her in its talons. She was lucky to be on or very near the front porch or she would have been a goner for sure. They later found they had a family of large Barred Owls that lived in that area. To say the least, the cat was never the same after that and I don’t think she ever went out after dark again....
Those Duck Falcons are deadly on corn.
There was an owl roaming my neighborhood for a few weeks. I would hear it screech and on occasion would hear a cat yowl afterward. Don’t know if he got the cat or not, however, the last time I heard that, my cat went missing. She showed up three days later hungry but not injured. I figured the exact scenario you are postulating, owl went after her, she got away and hid for days out of fear of a second attack.
To cure the cat of it's fear of owls, simply watch this video in it's entirity, then show it to the cat.
Probably. You'll also notice a newfound respect for dusk and dark, and a healthy fear of large birds.
I was thinking maybe a young hawk got really close, realized how big it was, and tried to abort, but still hit the cat,maybe just knocked it off a porch rail. But I’m thinking that any contact would result in some puncture wounds, even if the cat got lucky and it was just through loose skin.
I don’t think most folks realize how much pressure raptors can put behind those talons. Really big raptors are amazing, have you seen the videos of the natives hunting wolves with eagles in mongolia? If an eagle can kill a wolf, it could kill a man.
Freegards
Ping.
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