Newest Member of the Neighborhood Hawk Family.

[rebbetzin]

This morning my neighbor called me at 5:30am, I was still asleep, to let me know he put a young hawk in my front yard. He found it with the mom near his swimming pool. The baby doesn't fly very well yet. It walked right up to him, he put out his hand and the young bird went right up in his hand (accidently cut my neighbor's finger with one of his very sharp talons) Anyhow he put the birk in a box with a towel and a bowl of water. His thinking was that the parent birds come frequently to my birdbath so... maybe the young bird would be safer in my yard than next to his swimming pool.

But, by the time I got dressed, and went out in the front yard, the box was empty! I was afraid maybe one of the neighborhood cats got it. But later in the day, my neighbor called all excited he spotted the young hawk in one of the trees near his house. So I went ang got a photo of the young hawk.

Here it is...

This is one of the parents in a photo I took last year.

 

[Dawn419]

Beautiful pix, rebbetzin!

I know hawks are considered predators but we share our place with a pair of Red-taileds and we got to see them nesting here this year. they are one of my favorite birds (even though we keep chickens).

There are enough fields around us for them to hunt that they've not bothered our chickens one bit and the guineas are great for letting me know that they are in the area but I've yet to get a close picture of one of them. I've got a cropped pic of one of them on the wires across the road but haven't come to it yet in my pic moving adventures.

Here's a pic of their nest on the back corner of our place:

Dawn

 

[Mattemma]

So nice to look at as long as they aren't hurting our chickens.

 

[rebbetzin]

We have several types of hawks in our area. We can get quite close to them without them being spooked. They are such majestic/elegant? looking birds. We have many open fields where they get rabbits and mice, ground squirrels etc. But, they will come and just quietly sit by my chickens, most likely trying to figure out how them can get one of them for dinner! I missed a great photo one day, the hawk was sitting not 12 inches from my chicken tractor just intently watching the chickens, but by the time I got the camera he was gone. Would have made "Photo of the Week" for sure!!

 

[sourland]

Your neighbor should keep an eye on the laceration on his hand. Hawks' talons are laden with bacteria, and infection is a distinct possibility. I speak from experience.

 

[Okie Amazon]

Also keep in mind that young birds are not very experienced hunters and will go for anything that looks "easy".

 

[dewey]

So very beautiful...great pics!

 

[gjensen]

Quote:
X2

 

[NYRIR]

They are gorgeous...so glad they are not in MY yard

 

[12304]

does the adult have red eyes... thats freaky. hope they dont get any of your chickens