Wow, I just saw an amazing thing. A Cooper Hawk, probably the same one that showed up last week, just perched on a telephone pole across the street in front of my yard, my flock is free ranging in my front yard. I heard the hawk calling and grabbed my non-lethal BB gun and a broom. I see that my weak BB can't make the shot so i shoo my flock in under the rose bushes, and just keep an eye on the hawk. Then I see a pair of grackles perch on the telephone wire right in front of my yard staring at the hawk. Then a couple mockingbirds joined them, then at some invisible signal the grackles, mockingbirds and some sparrows I didn't know where there all took off after the hawk and started dive bombing and chasing it together! I knew some birds would defend their nests from hawks but didn't know they would join forces with other species to do it! I almost feel sorry for the hawk, it had to dive into some dense tree cover to escape, the birds were too persistent to let the hawk gain altitude. But I don't feel so bad I'd let him make a meal of my flock. I think I'll buy some wild bird seed and feed the wild birds, low cost hawk defense, lol.
