Daytime predator question

[cmom]

Right now I'm swearing through the instructions for the game camera setup. Easy, right? I know why it's been here for months, and not installed by me...
Mary

Mary, post a picture of the camera you're trying to setup and maybe I can help you.

 

[Folly's place]

I will post a picture of the camera tomorrow or Monday if I can't beat it into shape first...
Thanks!
Mary

 

[Folly's place]

I feel like I'm channeling my mother, who despised technology that wasn't there when she was 35.
AND I USED TO LAUGH ABOUT IT...
Mary

 

[Conan]

I'd think goshawk. They are small, agile, and can't carry prey off, even small bantams. I lost a couple to a gos (caught in the act on the third attempt), and the kill description is exactly the same as what I witnessed. There aren't as many feathers because they squeeze their prey to death. Rotten buggers.

 

[Folly's place]

I haven't ever seen a goshawk here, but that doesn't mean much. Sometimes I see hawks that I can't ID because they are too far away, or whatever. A Cooper's male, or a sharp shinned, could get between these trees too.
At least hawks don't take many at once, not like foxes or weasels.
Mary

 

[Folly's place]

Today I saw the likely culprit, a medium sized gray hawk, who killed my escape artist Brad, a very nice EE bantam rooster. He got out past me today when I was doing the coop, and I didn't let any other birds outside. I went back out there to see if he would come back in, and found him dead, under the hawk.
Another bad day for the chickens here!!!
He was the only serious escape artist in the flock, so the rest will be much easier to keep in, for the next three weeks at least. It's going to snow, and they will want to be in anyway.
He was wonderful, and will be missed. I have one of his sons, who looks like him.
Mary

 

[jolenesdad]

Today I saw the likely culprit, a medium sized gray hawk, who killed my escape artist Brad, a very nice EE bantam rooster. He got out past me today when I was doing the coop, and I didn't let any other birds outside. I went back out there to see if he would come back in, and found him dead, under the hawk.
Another bad day for the chickens here!!!
He was the only serious escape artist in the flock, so the rest will be much easier to keep in, for the next three weeks at least. It's going to snow, and they will want to be in anyway.
View attachment 1990980 View attachment 1990981 He was wonderful, and will be missed. I have one of his sons, who looks like him.
Mary

I’m so sorry for your loss. I’m so glad you have an area to keep them in for a while and let that hawk find other meal sources. He was a very beautiful boy!

 

[Conan]

Today I saw the likely culprit, a medium sized gray hawk, who killed my escape artist Brad, a very nice EE bantam rooster. He got out past me today when I was doing the coop, and I didn't let any other birds outside. I went back out there to see if he would come back in, and found him dead, under the hawk.
Another bad day for the chickens here!!!
He was the only serious escape artist in the flock, so the rest will be much easier to keep in, for the next three weeks at least. It's going to snow, and they will want to be in anyway.
View attachment 1990980 View attachment 1990981 He was wonderful, and will be missed. I have one of his sons, who looks like him.
Mary

Oh, what a bummer! He was a beautiful fella.

 

[SurferchickinSB]

Yet another 'who done it?'
Yesterday, sometime between 11am and 3:30pm, one of our bantam pullets was killed and partially eaten, by someone.
She was about 20 ft. away from the coop, under mature spruces. Her neck was eaten down to the bones, and her abdomen opened and partially eaten. She maybe weighed in at 1.5 pounds alive, so not large, and not carried off.
The other 31 birds were all fine and roosting inside at 5pm when I went to lock them in.
Weasel? Fox? The spruces are close together and about 35 ft. tall there, seems difficult for a hawk, but maybe a small one? Feral cat?
Southern Michigan, rural mostly.
Mary

Sounds like a cat.

 

[cmom]

I would suspect either a Sharp Shinned Hawk or a Cooper's Hawk. Both are gray color. I have had a Sharp Shinned hawk kill a Rhode Island White pullet some years ago. It happened very fast right in front of me.