caught duck by the leg, blood everywhere

[thedoors5to1]

today became my first encounter with the hawks that have resided in the woods behind my house for years... now i didnt see anything but my mom disrupted my shower to scream at me to get outside.. apparently she had looked out to check on them when they were free ranging the back yard. she thought cricket (my fawn and white runner) was playing with piper (grey runner)she then realized it was a hawk on the ground that was trying to fly away or eat cricket. my mom ran outside screaming to get it away, i think any number of minutes later and my cricket would have been a goner.
it had her leg in its beak and she was flapping her wings and using her bill to fend him off, while piper, eve, and lacy ran to the front yard, and elvis ran under the pool deck for cover, after we got it away we put them all away and i took cricket in for some tlc and ointment. she bled a good amount but has just a beak mark cut on her lower leg, im in shock that i came so close to loosing one of my feathery friends and am kind of scared to let them free range again..

any one have suggestions or advice about hawks other than c.d.s?

although i am extremely angered and frustrated, my heart goes out to the hawk and how starved he must be..

 

[gsim]

With free ranging there is nothing that you can really do outside of something like CD's or other reflective stuff. Lots of that polypropylene twine criss-crossed everywhere might help. Any thing to prevent a direct swoop and grab. However it did land and would have likely eaten the duck there if you had not seen it.

 

[thedoors5to1]

yeah i realize this, ive heard of crows shooing away hawks, my yard has multiple wild bird feeders and we put out whole grain wheat bread for them also when it goes stale.... i always see small wild birds but never crows. how can i attract them to my yard?

 

[wildorchid053]

crows live in a flock.. hard to get just a single one to come.. they don't really eat bird seed unless extremely hungry..

 

[jerseygirl1]

Besides the cd's, I have a fake owl whose head moves - I move it around the yard every so often and it does a decent job of keeping hawks away
Cheap to feed, too!
Walmart - $290

 

[NateinFL]

Quote:
Your bird feeders may be actually doing more harm than good, it might be bringing attention to the raptors that, hey, you have buffets going on in your yard, the more they watch your yard, greater the chance they might try and take one of your animals. Especially juvenile hawks, they will sometimes go after anything that moves, even bigger birds than them.

 

[Farmer Benjii]

Change to a run... well i really dont know what to do cause we dont have hawks up here reguarly