Hawk thread!!!

[sourland]

Adult red-tailed hawk. How did it get into confinement? They are not good at making their own holes.

She has a 'funnel' type entry door to the tractor. The hawk went in through the funnel and was unable to escape. There is a type of hawk trap (highly illegal) that is designed in this fashion.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

This is a rough-legged (excuse me, legged, not footed) hawk. Redtails are bigger and this bird is covered in mud but I have seen them in flight around here and they are always this breed, not the red tails. What you can't see in these shots is the underside of it's tail which had a black stripe on it. So not a redtail. Also the feathers on the legs come down much lower than on a red tail, which is hard to tell because of the mud. But it is what it is... There are redtails around here but these birds live here too and for some reason they have been here all year, black striped tails on about half of them.

I am a 22 year old city slicker. But there's a local animal rescue that works with our local natural history museum doing raptor rescue. They're quite famous, Penitentary Glen. Our museum has tour nights for members. You get to feed the hawks on these nights which are closed to the public. You also get to pet raccoons and hold possums. Pretty epic. You can get within about 3 feet of these birds and it's amazing. When I was ten I also got to hold, feed and have my picture taken with a raptor at a ren faire. I held a great horned owl. Sorry if that implies that I trap hawks. Also my sister in law worked in raptor rescue and transport in FL. I've heard the stories.
As for the tractor itself... I live in a tiny suburban lot. These are supposed to be temporary confinement so my animals can go outside of their pen. A pen that is restricted by the law of where I live to be just the end of my yard. It was originally designed with a heavy bottom for NZW rabbits and it was made out of scraps. I have been using it for rabbits for over six months.



This is what it looked like freshly built. No funnel there, you can hardly make out where the door is cut on the far side. Because I didn't cut a funnel, I cut a door. After many weeks of putting big, chubby, rabbits into it, and later my CX chickens, the edges started folding in, creating a funnel like effect and the cut door got beat up and no longer hooks properly but still holds my animals. You can see that effect on the right side of this photo;




edited by staff

 

[centrarchid]

Nice tractor. It would be hard for me to move without handles. Does it have a cover to keep weather from coming directly above?

edited by staff

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I wish it weren't so muddy out, or I'd be using this tractor still... I have since moved the birds into this tractor (picture from early in the year);



This one has a more secure door so no more hawk break-ins! Yeesh! Definitely not something I wanted to happen, especially not yesterday. The chickens are recovering pretty well, they seem to be over the shock of the attack, although they are a bit scabby on their faces and VERY muddy still.

edited by staff