Hawk NEST in MY YARD! What to do?

[treldib]

Alright, so today while I was watching my Ducks and Chickens eating little bugs and stuff I see this big dark shape swoop through my yard. I immeadietly stood up and started waving my arms and it got spooked and started frantically flapping its wings. It landed in a tree about 30 feet from the flock. I hurriedly put (herded) the entire flock into their "aviary" and went to investigate what was in the tree (with .38 in hand just in case those 3" talons flew at my face). I instantly recognized it as a Cooper's Hawk and saw that it had landed in a nest

It seemed to ignore me and then suddenly flew off (I was like

when it flew off but then when I saw where it landed I was more like

) and landed.....on top of the duck/chicken pen. I ran over to the pen and started shouting at the hawk. I was directly under it which was literally about 5 feet away. It was a tiny little thing but definetly eyeing the ducks and chickens. I cocked the .38 but then realized how much trouble I could be in if pulled the trigger. I instead chose to yell and throw pebbles at it. It eventually realized it couldn't get into the pen and flew off. Great...just great...now we're gonna have 2 adult Cooper's and a bunch of little hawks that the parents will be feeding and that will make them even more likely to go after my flock. Why me?!?!?!

Edited to fix spelling.

 

[TCollier]

What a delima!!! Can't leagally do anything to them or the nest and if they have a successful hatch and plenty of food there they WILL come back! I had a nest in my old yard for 5 years in a row. If they find a good area they just stay put. Not sure what to tell you here other than you may want to fence a large area in and use netting over top of it to keep them away from the herd.

 

[treldib]

Quote:

"Life in a cage is no life at all"

 

[ga_goat]

sounds like a 3 S problem to me .

 

[treldib]

Quote:
Huh? Explain...

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Quote:
Huh? Explain...

Shoot
Shovel
Shut up

Like you said in your first post, big trouble if you get caught!!

Run some fishing line around over head, and then tie on some reflective tape. Won't make them leave but should help them not getting a clear shot at your birds

 

[treldib]

Quote:
Huh? Explain...

Shoot
Shovel
Shut up

Like you said in your first post, big trouble if you get caught!!

Run some fishing line around over head, and then tie on some reflective tape. Won't make them leave but should help them not getting a clear shot at your birds

Thanks.

Cooper's are more of ground attack type birds of prey, they almost always catch their prey by flying "under the radar" (like 4 feet off the ground) so the CD's and fishing line won't work. They sit on a perch for a bit, dive through a gap in all the fishing line, land, then fly low and fast basically on the ground

 

[arch_cpj]

we had hawks hangin around and what I did was to fire bottle rockets in their direction (big bottle rockets) anytime I saw em they now are at the neighbors but between me and the swallows / crows they avoid my yard...

 

[True Grit]

Do hawks hunt at a certain time of day? I let my chicks out between 5:30 and 8pm. Thanks

 

[Lbrad7]

You would be better off packing up and moving. It would be cheaper to buy a new house than face the fines of wacking a bird of prey. By the way..you can be fined if they catch you shooting bottle rockets at them too.

I love wild life and believe in living and let live until they start attacking my birds. I have grown to HATE hawks with a passion...at least in my yard. I have no idea why they are protected because they are way over populated in our area. I have had them take out a chicken within 20 feet of me. I scared it off but my chicken didn't last more than 10 mins after the attack. The impact of the hit and the deep talon wounds were more than the little guy could stand.

Good luck...with a nest you are going to need it!