Lately, we've noticed that a large bird has been hanging around in the trees, watching the chickens.
Not sure what it is, since everytime we go outside, it flies away. All we see is this huge, dark bird flying off over the trees.
One night when we were putting the chickens in and counting them, one was missing; Pumpkin, our small Bantam Cochin pullet. We searched everywhere; in the other coops, under the van, in the trees, in the garage. But she was nowhere. We were guessing that the hawk got her. But luckily, after a final check in the original coop where she sleeps, we found her!
She had been sitting on a perch in the dark corner! I don't know how I missed her. Maybe it's because that time I had a flashlight.
But anyway, we have Bald Eagles, Osprey(not really near our house but they are seen at the local beach a lot), Sparrow Hawks, etc. I wonder what this bird could be?
Luckily, we have 2 very protective roosters- a RIR and a Cochin(standard). Marty, the RIR, is aggressive and will chase anything away if it's bothering his hens. If he hears one of them cackling or making a lot of noise, he will go running over. Foghorn is shy of us, and not as fierce as Marty when it comes to fighting off anything near his hens, but we named him after his loud alert sounds when he sees something. It kinda sounds like a goose honk or something lol. Whenever he sees even a Blue Jay, wood pecker, or even a crow in the trees or flying over head, he sounds his loud goose honk and all the chickens go running for cover...well, most of the time. They usually just stand really still to make sure it's serious, then go running. But it's funny because one time he did this and little Pumpkin went running under a garbage bag!
So anyway, with our 2 roosters, if we hear them make their alert sounds, we go outside to make sure everything is OK with the hens.
Hopefully the large bird that we've been seeing a few times won't try and attack any of the chickens.
One night when we were putting the chickens in and counting them, one was missing; Pumpkin, our small Bantam Cochin pullet. We searched everywhere; in the other coops, under the van, in the trees, in the garage. But she was nowhere. We were guessing that the hawk got her. But luckily, after a final check in the original coop where she sleeps, we found her!
But anyway, we have Bald Eagles, Osprey(not really near our house but they are seen at the local beach a lot), Sparrow Hawks, etc. I wonder what this bird could be?
Luckily, we have 2 very protective roosters- a RIR and a Cochin(standard). Marty, the RIR, is aggressive and will chase anything away if it's bothering his hens. If he hears one of them cackling or making a lot of noise, he will go running over. Foghorn is shy of us, and not as fierce as Marty when it comes to fighting off anything near his hens, but we named him after his loud alert sounds when he sees something. It kinda sounds like a goose honk or something lol. Whenever he sees even a Blue Jay, wood pecker, or even a crow in the trees or flying over head, he sounds his loud goose honk and all the chickens go running for cover...well, most of the time. They usually just stand really still to make sure it's serious, then go running. But it's funny because one time he did this and little Pumpkin went running under a garbage bag!
So anyway, with our 2 roosters, if we hear them make their alert sounds, we go outside to make sure everything is OK with the hens.
Hopefully the large bird that we've been seeing a few times won't try and attack any of the chickens.
