I had a hawk get one of my birds today. It was a coppers hawk, a relentless one. It killed one of my birds, but I chased it off the bird without knowing that it was dead. It was one of my favorite birds. A pretty cock. Well, since it was still hungry, it went after my other 10 birds while in the air. It didn't get any, but split the group and were missing for 3 hours. There was one that came down to the ground, and I was out there waiting to see where the hawk and pigeons were, and the hawk hit it in the ground. It got awau, and I scared the hawk...

but it still hung around... It finally left, as far as I could tell. Woo I called in four of my birds. They were exhausted. And then he aired some more. I got in 5 more later, but was still missing the one that got hit in the ground. It ended up coming in just before dark, and only had two small punctures in its stomach. But I'm done with flys for four days or so.
I had been experimenting with natural loft flys. Just letting my old birds have fun outside for four or more hours. It was all well until today. I don't know If I will continue to let them do that or no. They love it, but the hawks do to.
I get that hawks are protected, but there should really be exceptions when they are hurting livestock. They are increasing in numbers like crazy. I'm europe, there so common fancier are happy to only lose one bird per fly. It's terrible. There populations are increasing because of it, and there actually harming native game birds such as bobwhite quail. Yet, the bobwhites are still hunted... Same with pheasants farther north. The hawks are just thining out birds, while they are going up in population quick. We better rethink the laws, as we are damaging many species
I'm done