Posted on 07/29/2018 9:18:49 PM PDT by EinNYC
This is NYC, not rural NJ. This is what makes this so weird. While my neighbor's 18 month old and 3 year old daughters were happily splashing around in a little pool in the yard, a red tailed hawk landed on the porch railing not 10' from the little girls. My neighbor shot several pics with her cell phone. She would have called me over, knowing I'm an avid birder, but I had just left in my car on an errand. Scared that the raptor might hurt her kids, she grabbed them and took them inside. I guess Mr. Hawk was interested in the flock of sparrows always hanging around or maybe one of the pesky squirrels who like to dig up my garden plants. Or maybe it was interested in the water in the pool. Who knows?
Good that she took the kids inside, you never know what can happen.
That’s a beauty. How big is he?
I saw this one on the side of the road a couple of years back, and almost hit it as I came around a corner...so I stopped and tried to get it out of the road, and it wasn't prepared to leave its kill...
I drove my car super slowly right up until it disappeared under my bumper, but eventually picked up its kill and flew off!
The squeals of playing toddlers attracts predators of all kinds. I have noticed this before when my own children were that age and their squeals would turn the normally nice dog neighboring dogs into Cujo.
We had one set up shop on top of our A/C unit here in western Ohio. It was watching for chipmunks.
that is an auspicious omen. I always feel lucky when I see a bird of prey (on Kitsap its the bald eagle).
They will not hurt the kids, had them on my property years ago as well as kestrels, they are after birds, rodents etc. Could be hungry or thirsty, from a spiritual point of view I call it good energy
a large hawk landed on a street sign a few feet from me a while back; I considered it a sign of good luck.
OTOH, giant owls watching me take walks at night make me a little nervous.
The hawk landed on the porch about a minute after I left for an errand, so I didn't see it personally. I have to depend on my neighbor's pictures. Red tailed hawks can run 17-22 inches in length and have a wingspan of 43-56 inches. This bird on our neighbor's porch is a juvenile, as it has yellow eyes. Adults have dark brown eyes. I have seen pairs of red tails on the campus of the nearby college, once with half a pigeon in its talons. I am wondering if this juvie is the offspring of one of those adults.
Working in my yard one afternoon when a hawk flew past me and grabbed a robin right out of the air not more than 10 feet away. Three little boys playing in the yard across the street saw it; in chorus they all said “Cool!”
(I'm seriously interested, and have been watching numerous youtube videos the last couple days showing various "foolproof" squirrel-deterring bird feeders. Thanks!)
Meanwhile, the squirrel is scattering seed all over the ground, so it could benefit later, as well as its friend squirrels.
Run Bandit!!
(I don't know why the mp4 link doesn't show up on the FR page for me.)
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