Red tail hawk

[duman444]

Is Red gone? The pictured hawk owned my suburb outside of Houston for a couple of years. My wife's bird feeder fed him several doves and even a squirrel or two. Have not seen Red for a while and the doves and squirrels are celebrating.

Red was so ferocious he attacked one of the neighbors rescue dogs while the owner was walking him. Dog had to get a few stiches over that.

Picture below is from me about 10' away. Been zoomed some so has lost some clarity. He is clearly telling me not to mess with him.

 

[Rudi]

They are such majestic animals. Love to see them.

 

[swsig]

Back in the '90s, I worked in a high-rise office building at Las Colinas, near DFW Airport. A bunch of red-tail hawks built their nests in the top level of the building, and would sail by my office window all day. They were fascinating. Sometimes during a boring work assignment, they made it hard to concentrate on the task at hand.

 

[Old Arkansawyer]

As a boy my dad had a 20 acre field that I plowed. In the fence row were
a couple dead tree snags and as the plowing began the hawks would appear as if by magic. They would sit and watch for mice, rats and some rabbits to make a break for it over the plowed ground. The hawks could see them from several hundred yards away, then swoop down and that would spell death for the rodents. I never tired of watching the Red Tails and other hawks.

 

[pasound]

The hillside above my downtown neighborhood is home to a family of Red Tails. Been there for at least a decade, so not sure which generation is living there now. Every year they raise 4-5 chicks and in the summer and fall I can watch them doing their dance circles, teaching the young ones how to cruise and hunt. Lots of squirrels in the neighborhood trees, and the adjacent State Capitol campus. They feed well.

 

[yeti]

Hawks are amazing and beautiful. We always enjoy seeing our local Red Tail friends out hunting or just resting.
They need to fly by more often and pick up some take-out meals of bunny and squirrel. Bunnies and tree rats are out of hand this year.

 

[yaktamer]

Very common around here. A few years ago I saw one grab a pigeon in flight over my pool. Went out a couple of hours later and all that was left were a few feathers and the clean-picked skeleton of the pigeon on top of the block wall.

 

[S&WIowegan]

Peregrine Falcons

My last job was in a 40 story office building. Of course there were lots of pigeons in the downtown office buildings. Eventually some peregrine falcons were brought in to eat pigeons. It's really quite a sight to look out an office window and see the falcon hit a pigeon in mid-air. Feathers fly and the falcon flys off with dinner for the family. While the falcons were good there were way too many pigeons too be eaten so the idea was not effective in reducing pigeon population.

I feed the birds in my backyard and the squirells think the food is for them. Occasionally a squirell passes away suddenly. Our barred owl is big and strong enough to pick up the rodent and take it to family dinner. Great to see.

 

[hivel37]

When I was about 15 or so, my older brother joined the Air Force.
Rather than let his Win model 63 go unused, it became mine for
four years. Being rural folk, chicken hawks (Redtails) were on the list
for extermination. I made a "stalk" on one perched in a high live oak.
The first one I've killed was the last one. He was huge and such a beautiful bird.

 

[TX-Dennis]

We've had a Cooper's that hangs out watching my wife's bird feeders. It has caught a few dove here from time to time. Most of the time when the hawk arrives, the smaller birds disappear quickly to avoid being eaten.

 

[bdGreen]

All we have around here are the Coopers hawks.

They tear up the dove and rabbits.

Eat more bunnies.!

bdGreen

Tap on image to enlarge.