FOGHORN LEGHORN~ "Lookit here son, I say, I say son, did ya see that hawk after those hens? ....

[Sally Sunshine]

Those are food-begging 'KLEE KLEE KLEE KLEE KLEE KLEE' sounds; they cut that out after mom and dad stop feeding them and start laying the hammer down about getting their own food when they are hungry. The parent birds are the ones that make the classic 'hawk sound' of 'KEEEEERRRRrrrrrrrrr' and soft sounds to each other. You can always tell the babies from the adults by the 1. Moon-yellow or light brown eyes, 2. clear white chest over the crop area, 3. brown tail with thin dark bars all over it, and 4. when they soar, their primaries (the outer most 'finger' looking flight feathers) are considerably paler than the area of their wings (their secondaries) closest to their bodies.






Baby redtails are lazy creatures, and would rather sit and beg for handouts from mom and dad than get up and get their own food, so the parents rely on hunger to motivate them to quit sitting around and being lazy. This results in a LOT of food-begging during this 'weaning' phase (June through the end of July/early August, with it much worse at the end than the beginning).

In any case, expect it to completely end by mid-August/early-September.

PS: The more they call, the hungrier they are!

WOW is all I can say!

 

[CaCO3]

The call I am most attuned to is the distinct raspy screech. Guess its the KEEEERRRRrrrrr one. I never understand how they come up with text descriptions for calls. The only one that registers for me is the "who cooks for you" owl call . Theres a hawk hovering around here. Next time it does a loop I'll grab a pic.

Beautiful pics- yours? I like the palm frond and feather one its a nice repetition of pattern. I would enjoy seeing them more if I didn't need to worry about the chickens or someone's little kitties, etc. getting on the menu. Animals aren't aren't spiteful or malicious but I'd still miss my pet!

You might enjoy this its the falcon cam that was set up to monitor the pair that nests on the Travelers Insurance tower in Hartford, CT. It's currently shut down and they moved the nest to an accessory building while they do the never-ending work on the tower. I will see them flying around outside, when I'm in meetings at work. I know they have these kinds of cameras elsewhere for birds of prey, but here's ours!

http://falconcam.travelers.com/

 

[CaCO3]

One of the ones around today circling with a friend

 

[4Hgirl]

I had three huge owls at dusk last night on my property. I was cooking with back door open and heard something strange so ran outside and sure enough two were landing in a pine tree top to the west of my barn and coop and one was still in a tree to the east. My 10yr old ran to her flock and they weren't quite in the coop yet but they were by it. They were all aware of the preditors and hiding under my truck still parked by the barn from a feed drop earlier in the day. The owl to the east flew right down in front of my daughter on its way to join the other two owls. My daughter was frantically tossing birds in the coop. She was histerical! My husband ran for some fire crackers and the noise made them go away. I sure hope that is legal. No free time out of the coop for a couple days I guess.

 

[CaCO3]

The close call is not cool but the owl sighting sounds exciting! I've only heard them in the woods or in the big pine tree next door. Have been told that great horned owls in particular like pine trees. What species of owls were they? I wouldn't be too worried about the firecrackers IMO. As long as you aren't shooting bottle rockets at them its seems reasonable to use as noise deterrent to protect your flock. It's not harassing wildlife indiscriminately. That would be my defense. Or plead ignorance . Unless you meant your fireworks, whether those were legal...

 

[Sally Sunshine]

The close call is not cool but the owl sighting sounds exciting! I've only heard them in the woods or in the big pine tree next door. Have been told that great horned owls in particular like pine trees. What species of owls were they? I wouldn't be too worried about the firecrackers IMO. As long as you aren't shooting bottle rockets at them its seems reasonable to use as noise deterrent to protect your flock. It's not harassing wildlife indiscriminately. That would be my defense. Or plead ignorance

. Unless you meant your fireworks, whether those were legal...

Owls are so cool and so tough looking, at least I think so!

 

[CaCO3]

Yeah i agree. Screech owls are really cool I like the pint-size. Think there are only a few types of owls in CT- barn, great horned, eastern screech, and a couple others I have to look it up. I've only seen them when rehabilitation groups have done the school presentations. Never in the wild. Just heard their hoots. And i understand they're silent flyers so maybe they've flown right over my head at night. Wouldn't be the first thing to fly over my clueless head.

Owls are so cool and so tough looking, at least I think so!

 

[troy1]

I was at a Bantam show a while back and a helicopter flew over..talk about chicken pandemonium....lol.

 

[CaCO3]

Try living 1.5 mi from a small airport......

 

[Sally Sunshine]

I was at a Bantam show a while back and a helicopter flew over..talk about chicken pandemonium....lol.

troy what breed is your avy?