There was a hawk within one of my pens yesterday at dusk. I heard the alarm set up by the roosters and ran out there (in my good shoes) to find it inside the only fully covered run. All the birds had gone into their coop-it was the birds in the adjoining runs making all the noise. I ran around after the thing wanting, mostly, to give it a bad memory, and it flew out through the gate which I'd left very slightly ajar. Instead of flying away, it went into my main run. What happened next was almost too fast to see, but suddenly the hawk was on its back, on the ground, in a corner between the main chicken house and chain link fence. Its talons were up in a defensive position, and my gallant Jersey Giant rooster and Marans/Dorking rooster were standing over it. For the moment, they seemed to have it under control, but I was afraid that it could/would do them some real harm in the fight. I approached quickly, rake in hand (not sure what i was going to do); the hawk flipped over like an acrobat and flew out through a small space between the fencing. I was truly amazed at its agility and ability to see its way of escape in such chaotic circumstances. A check through all the runs showed no losses. A tree branch had made a hole in the deer net that I'd covered that particular run with, probably during the big wind storm last week. We have a pair of ravens that live full time in a stand of pine trees about 25 yards from my pens and free range area. They patrol vigilantly; I have seen them run hawks off long before they reach the edges of our property, so this was a real surprise. The hawks had gone to roost already. I wonder if they saw me, and said,"We have a human who lives full time about 75 yards from our trees and she......."
