Game Cam "mystery" pix

[Tala]

Quote:
Someone would steal it if they found it. A single T-post isn't very sturdy against someone pulling it out.
The main reason I got the game camera is because someone stole my new live trap, but I also use it to watch for wildlife too.

 

[BirdNut]

Very, very strange capture. I'm voting owl. I've seen many, many Great Horned Owls fly through my neighborhood back when I lived in the country. The barring on the feathers looked exactly like what you see there. At first, it really looked to me like there was someone in your coop!!

 

[ZombieChickens]

Ghost Pheonix.

 

[redhen]

I'm telling ya.. there WAS a person in the first few pics.. **probably YOU Tala..lol **

 

[bigcomb]

how bout a bug in front of the lens?

 

[WVDan44]

I think it is a nighthawk fluttering around in front of the camera. It is an eerie but beautiful shape. Maybe it's a chicken angel or something, but I still think it's a nighthawk. JMHO

 

[TK421]

Based on the morphology of the wash-out, it is VERY close to the outline of a sharp-shinned hawk or Cooper's Hawk. Note the tail feathers very close together (not fanned out like a red-tailed haw). The high aspect ratio of the wing indicates a fast flyer that is capable of catching prey in the air, as opposed to a low aspect ratio like an owl, whose wings are designed more for silent, stable, balanced flight. So this narrows it down to Accipiters (falcons, some hawks). The whole profile is too slim to be a red-shouldered hawk, and they prefer frog-sized food anyway.

It's also not a nighthawk, whipperwhill, chuck will's widow, or a common poorwill, because the angle of the wing is not sharp enough. Also, they don't hold their wings in a locked position (like in a dive) so close to their body. Their wings are almost always out away from their body.

I'm puzzled by the barred feathers hanging down in the corner, but it's most likely it's a second individual of the same species. A prey species would not have stayed in the exact same position (with a possible wing drooping down, i.e. relaxed) with a hawk flying around.

So, I say 2 Coopers Hawks or 2 Sharp-shinned hawks.

 

[Lbrad7]

Creeeeeeppy! Did you lose any birds in this attack or was it unable to get into your coop?

 

[ksct]

i think there's more than one.....
in pics 4-6 up in the top right there is a clear view of tail or wing feathers.
I don't know if that's what everyone else is seeing too.....
eery pics.
glad you have a cam to keep an eye on them!

 

[HLAC]

I'm pretty sure it's a person in those photos. Look at the first 'angel wing' photo. That must be you leaning toward the camera. Then the second is you still leaning in but closer. Then you're really close. Then leaning the other way, then back toward the camera and then really in close again.

There are some barred tail feathers in a few of the photos, but they look just like the down-hanging tips of rooster's tail. (barred rock maybe?)