- Oct 24, 2014
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A woman at a forest preserve,who worked with raptors, once told me that after a few days of poor weather, the hawks will be out hunting in force on the 1st clear day.
Sure enough, yesterday at 10am a giant hawk - bigger than my rooster!- came by for a visit. I was alerted by the crow brigade making such a racket. Then the roo started crowing. My dogs ran out 1st & I arrived just in time to see the hawk sitting on my gutter. It looked at me then flew off. Most of the chickens made it to the coop - including the roo. He was standing guard inside at the doorway. Three girls did not make it to the coop. They were hiding along the back of the garage & wedged between the siding, a trash can, & a pile of bricks. I saw a lot of their feathers where they were hiding. I scooped them up & put them away. Everyone was safe. The flock remained locked up for the rest of the day.
Today at 10am I heard the crows again, followed by the roo's crowing. (He's quiet & rarely crows.) The flock was still locked up (and will be for a while), but I'm sure it was the hawk stopping by. Has anyone else noticed that the hawks tend to keep their scheduled rounds? The Cooper's hawk (from November) always seemed to attack in late afternoon. Yesterday's & today's both happened in the late morning. This current hawk flew away easier, but it's scary big. The cooper's hawk was small but so determined.
Yesterday's big hawk had a white & brown speckled belly like in this pic. Perhaps a Red-Tailed hawk, but I really wasn't looking.
The little hawk looked like this. Little hawk actually killed a pullet & then returned multiple times a day for over a month.
These are not my pics; they just look like the hawks I saw.
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The first pic is the same Hawk I have over here. And it seems to me that he has been here at different times. A couple of weeks ago, he tried getting my RIR but just ended up pulling some feathers. She took off under the deck and he ended up on the deck. I wish I was faster cause I could have grabbed him if I was quicker. But that was around 10 -11am. Other times he has been here in the afternoon. He is a resident in our neighborhood for a couple of years now. I always thought how beautiful he was, but now that I have chickens, I wish he would move to a new neighborhood!