I had a couple of semi-close encounters with a Red Tail hawk.
A Red Tail was limping in my side yard, then flat out just stopped and wouldn’t move at all. He saw me and still just kinda sat there.
I called wild life people in the county and they said I had to bring the hawk in in order for it to get some help.
So, I decided to throw a blanket over it, then box it and take it where it could get some help.
I got within about 5 feet away and he\she managed to flutter up into a tree.
By the time i put stuff away and came back, the hawk was gone.
Another time I am on a golf course and I am wearing an orange hunters hat. All of a sudden, a hawk diving right at me with it’s talons open. I raised a golf club and he\she pulled up.
Not sure if it was the golf club or he\she realized the orange thing wasn’t breakfast. I didn’t have to change my shorts but it was that kind of event.
My next door neighbor just lost a small young pup to a hawk recently. Broke her heart. Be aware these are hunters of opportunity. Full grown dogs and cats are pretty generally safe. The young on the other hand can become prey pretty fast. The great horned owls around here are heavy weapons. Jack rabbits aren’t small and they are on the menu.
I’ve learned to stay far, far away from the animal “rescue” people. Evil. Made the mistake of calling them twice and both times I had to rescue the animal from them because they admitted they usually kill the animals.
Heard a big commotion in the yard a few days ago. Our smallest cat decided a big blue heron looked tasty or maybe he thought she looked tasty. Both escaped.
My morning run took me along a trail in the local River Bend Park. The trail follows a sort of dike between the river and the gravel pit lake, both are near, but nether is very visible from the trail. Shortly after leaving the forested zone on the dike into the low land tall grassy meadow, I heard what I now call “a large flapping” noise just behind me. I looked around and there was a great blue heron in the air in an escape mode less then 10 feet away.