Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Ponypoor]

How is your arm today?

All better

 

[RoyalChick]

All better

Yay! You had us worried.

 

[Logar]

For anyone wondering this is where Star was. She found out about the spot and was hopping up and down all day lol

 

[Marie2020]

At long last princess and my doggo gets to see the garden without rain.

 

[Marie2020]

All better

I'm so pleased. I was very concerned that your arm wasn't working.

I put a hot water bottle on my shoulder last night and it's really helped.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

The 1st video wasn't a hawk video. The 2nd video showed the hawk preferring to use his wings as much as possible but too many obstacles & no success hunting. Which to me affirms their need to catch prey in flight w/ plenty of air space for successfully using talons to grasp prey. A Cooper's flew after a Mourning Dove & the dove flew inside a neighbor's banana tree & the Cooper's didn't go into the tree after it though it was easy enough to extract.

14 yrs of obstructed air space & non-friendly thick trees, patio roofs, dog houses, benches, lawn furniture, popup canopies, etc, have worked for us so far. Nothing is ever 100% where predators are involved but as chickeneers we do our best to figure what has worked in our own environments.

I think our nearby Santa Fe Park & our nearby mountains/meadows offer hawks more easy flight space than our obstructed neighborhood. We seem to get the inexperienced Spring fledglings around here that look confused as to what they're supposed to do when perched atop a roof or telephone pole. I guess the parents or Crows eventually chase them off to find their own territory to patrol cuz we don't see them in summer, fall, or winter ~ only a fledgling or two in Spring.

I've shared before that one fledgling flew straight into our dog kennel wire chicken run & knocked itself out! That's when I didn't mind that we had over-spent on our Fort Knox coop/run setup! Still not all safety measures are 100%. For instance, it's a bit absurd to try & electrify a block wall from predators ~ anyway we wouldn't want to deter our favourite neighborhood rat hunters ~ cats who walk on the wall.

Lots of things to take into account what predators are in an area. My #1 complaint is still the stray dogs or inconsiderate neighbor that lets their pup run around loose pooping on lawns or barking at cars or pedestrians ~ or the smaller loose Chihuahua mixes trying to squeeze thru our gates!

Coopers are originally forest birds, so they are actually very good at hunting in close quarters. They will typically hunt lizards, toads, snakes, mice, chipmunks, etc that are on the forest floor by sitting still on a branch 7-10 feet up and then jumping down on it. I think @BY Bob has video of one hopping down through his bush to get at a songbird inside the bush. They will also fly-chase small birds through the forest canopy.

But I’ve also (twice) seen them make an open-air high-speed attack on an exposed chickadee here, and having first lost the element of surprise, follow it, turn-for-turn, in very close pursuit (like a length away) as the chickadee flew in dodging moves through close tree branches. If the chickadee had made a mistake or tired, it would have been caught. Its only chance is to stay just enough ahead long enough to tire the hawk. It cannot really hide anywhere, or fly faster.

Coopers have a slim body and short broad wings relative to their body size that make them very agile flyers in close quarters. I agree with @bgmathteach that your theory that there is more abundant prey elsewhere is one reason your setup has succeeded. A park where people might be feeding birds, thus attracting mice too, sounds ideal, as long as it’s not too far from their preferred wooded nesting spots.

You seem to only mostly see juveniles, and in the Spring. They sound like they’ve been driven out of their home area, trying to survive elsewhere. So another reason you’ve been lucky may be that you’re not in a major migration flight path. If so, unlike some others on BYC (@BY Bob, me, @micstrachan, @bgmathteach) you are not exposed to many adult migrating hawks in the Spring and Fall. That alone greatly lowers the odds of your setup being challenged by an experienced hawk passing through. One that has survived its first year is probably going to know what it’s doing. A few years old and it’s an expert. You may just have a small local population that sticks to the better hunting grounds in the park, migrating to and from there.

Can you tell I’m jealous?

 

[bgmathteach]

The 1st video wasn't a hawk video. The 2nd video showed the hawk preferring to use his wings as much as possible but too many obstacles & no success hunting. Which to me affirms their need to catch prey in flight w/ plenty of air space for successfully using talons to grasp prey. A Cooper's flew after a Mourning Dove & the dove flew inside a neighbor's banana tree & the Cooper's didn't go into the tree after it though it was easy enough to extract.

14 yrs of obstructed air space & non-friendly thick trees, patio roofs, dog houses, benches, lawn furniture, popup canopies, etc, have worked for us so far. Nothing is ever 100% where predators are involved but as chickeneers we do our best to figure what has worked in our own environments.

I think our nearby Santa Fe Park & our nearby mountains/meadows offer hawks more easy flight space than our obstructed neighborhood. We seem to get the inexperienced Spring fledglings around here that look confused as to what they're supposed to do when perched atop a roof or telephone pole. I guess the parents or Crows eventually chase them off to find their own territory to patrol cuz we don't see them in summer, fall, or winter ~ only a fledgling or two in Spring.

I've shared before that one fledgling flew straight into our dog kennel wire chicken run & knocked itself out! That's when I didn't mind that we had over-spent on our Fort Knox coop/run setup! Still not all safety measures are 100%. For instance, it's a bit absurd to try & electrify a block wall from predators ~ anyway we wouldn't want to deter our favourite neighborhood rat hunters ~ cats who walk on the wall.

Lots of things to take into account what predators are in an area. My #1 complaint is still the stray dogs or inconsiderate neighbor that lets their pup run around loose pooping on lawns or barking at cars or pedestrians ~ or the smaller loose Chihuahua mixes trying to squeeze thru our gates!

Hmmm, it will not allow me to edit any longer: here is the hunting ina brush pile video. I evidently waited too long to click and save the link.

 

[bgmathteach]

That’s quite generous to be allowed 10. Most town here that allow poultry only allow 3. This is to discourage mess with animal waste, and also to discourage sales of eggs or meat from a residential home.

In rural areas one can sell eggs from their home but not meat.

3 is not enough! if one dies, you only have two (imo, not enough for a flock), but can only add 1??? I think they do best when added in pairs. I would think 4-6 are more reasonable limits. Certainly at least 4!!!

 

[SimpleJenn]

Thirsty Thursday

 

[TOMTE]

Is that possum male or female? It may return if a "she" & left kits behind somewhere?

I forgot to reply to this, from when I posted the pics of the possum.

I don't know if it was male or female, but it was young (possibly old enough to breed, but not sure). If it had been a female with joeys, they would've been in her pouch, or clinging to her if they were too big to fit in the pouch anymore. So no need to worry about babies!