I narrowly lost one of my favorite chickens today! Thank goodness nothing happened! I had just went outside to give my ducks and chicken's fresh water, and to let my bantams wander about the garden for a few minutes. I just turned my back to fill up the horse trough when I heard panicked squaking from the garden. I turned around, and I thought at first that two of my hens had gotten in a hen-fight, then a realized that one 'chicken' was actually a hawk! I jumped over and ran toward the hawk, and it flapped away quickly. It had tried to carry off one of my WCB Polish girls! She wasn't injured at all, and got up and strutted indignently into the hoophouse. The other chickens had dashed under the woodpile, so I had to track them down too. I'm so happy my Shanaynay is okay. She wasn't even a little ruffled! My cowardly bantam brahma roo crowed his head off after I put all the birds away! What puzzles me though is that the hawk would attempt to take a chicken when I was ten feet away? It must have been desperate to attempt that! I think it was a young sharp-shinned hawk, because it was so small, had stripes on its' tail and had dark wings and a pale belly. Yes, I did grab the binoculars and try to identify it!
I've had some close calls myself. I once looked out the door and saw a large bird swoop over. I thought nothing of it for a moment, thinking it was a Blue Jay, until I heard frantic squawking and decided to go take a look. To my surprise it was a Cooper's Hawk! Thankfully none of the chickens were hurt, but the squawking I think attracted a Red-Tailed Hawk which glided over.
