5 minutes ago I saw something I absolutely CANNOT BELIEVE!!!!!!! I was so excited I had to tell someone and since my nonpoultry friends tire of my bird stories, I had to come to BYC where I knew people could relate...AND MAYBE EVEN HELP!!! I've been on BYC a few months and never even noticed the predator section until I was looking at where I should/could post my story! SHould have known you folks would be way ahead of me. Anyway....here is the shocking story (OK, to you all it may not be a big deal, but it has rocked my world!)
First, and perhaps most important, you need to know where I live and raise my few little birds (I have 4 baby turkeys- 2 months old). I live smack in the middle of town....as in....I have houses on both sides of me, directly behind me, in front of me, etc. In fact, I'm just TWO BLOCKS from the town square, businesses, court house, etc. In other words, I'm in a VERY urban environment. My back yard is only about 100 feet x 200 feet, and in one corner is my little 18 x 16 ft x 6 ft tall pen where my turkeys are. There is one huge oak tree that shades and hides (from above) my turkeys, and there is a fence line beside the pen which is a little grown up to help give a little privacy....but other than that, if you looked down on my house from above, you'd see nothing for MILES except houses, cleared yards, businesses, traffic, etc.
5 minutes ago I walked outside to feed my turkeys and when I opened the door, they all had a look I have NEVER EVER seen before. Every one of them was puffed up, all their feathers were sticking straight out...they all looked 2-3 times bigger than normal. While you all are starting the get the idea....I didn't. I stopped to just look at them because it was so unusual, and I honestly thought they were finally started to learn to strut, which I thought was neat/cute so I was going to watch. Then all of a sudden this HUGE....I mean to me it was GIGANTIC (hopefully by now you're really curious about what the "predator" is).... HAWK flies up into the big oak tree above the pen!!! I have never in the 13 years I've lived here EVER seen such a thing on or anywhere near my property. I was both mad (how DARE this critter even think about harming my turkeys) and facinated (it was the closest I've ever been to a hawk and it really was AMAZING to examine it so close.). Soon enough my anger and fear for my chicks overcame my facination and I decided if I scared the hawk bad enough maybe it wouldn't come back....so I clapped really loud and ever yelled (GET GET) very loudly......thats when my story gets even more unbelievable!!!!
Suddenly a SECOND hawk, which this whole time had been on the ground RIGHT at the base of the turkey pen (on the opposit side from me so I hadn't seen it) flys up as well!!!! YEP...not one, but TWO hawks in my back yard at my turkey pen IN THE MIDDLE OF TOWN!!!!! UN_FREAKING-BELIEVABLE!!!!! This one does the same as the first one....just flies up into the tree and sits there. Only when I yelled and clapped did it sort of fly off....I COULDN"T BELIEVE HOW UNAFRAID THEY WERE!!!!!
Obviously I'm really blown away by all this. Again, you have to understand that I'm not from nor ever lived in a country/rural area and currently live in the exact opposite, so I never have seen wild hawks before, let alone here in my urbanized back yard!!!! There is just enough cover from the huge Oak Tree and the grown up fence line that I can now imagine that this is probably an attractive place for them, especially with a potential lunch just waiting for them!
BTW...I spent the first 4 minutes before writing this looking up Hawks....no doubt about it....they were RED TAILED HAWKS. Now.....my question for you all......how determined will these dang predator's be? Will they be back? My pen is REASONABLY secure I THINK. It has a wood frame and has chicken wire on all 4 sides and no holes large enough for a hawk. On the top, I used that plastic netting that looks like chicken wire so the top is also "fenced in"...BUT......I ran the roll of plastic net across the top 2 times....each time along one side. The width of my pen is a little longer than the 2 rolls running along the sides, so there was about a 1.5 foot gap running the full length of my pen. SO I ran a third strip of netting along that gap in the roof. Since it overlapped each of the existing rolls by about 2.5 feet, I didn't tie them all together..... IN OTHER WORDS (since I've probably confused you now) it is POSSIBLE that a hawk COULD lift up the edge of the center piece of netting and scoot under it until it comes to the 1.5 gap that runs through the center of the roof (between the 2 edge pieces) and could get down into the pen. If a hawk did that I doubt he could get back out, but by then my turkeys would be dead so who cares! Am I being rediculus or are hawks desperate enough to find this breach and take advantage of it? To tie both sides of that center strip down would be a big job, but if you think I should, I will.???
Otherwise, I'm just generally interested in hearing what you all think about my experience? Where did these dang hawks come from??? How on earth did they discover my turkeys and try to get to them so fast (the pen and them have only been there about 3 weeks or less!!!!). Isn't it amazing how my turkeys knew to be scared and knew to puff up and try to look big!!!??? (instinct, I know, but still facinating) They've never seen ANY predators before. My dog scares them a little but they don't puff up like that.
ANyway, sorry to be so long, but this is a really big deal to me and I had to tell SOMEONE that could appreciate it! haha
Kevin
First, and perhaps most important, you need to know where I live and raise my few little birds (I have 4 baby turkeys- 2 months old). I live smack in the middle of town....as in....I have houses on both sides of me, directly behind me, in front of me, etc. In fact, I'm just TWO BLOCKS from the town square, businesses, court house, etc. In other words, I'm in a VERY urban environment. My back yard is only about 100 feet x 200 feet, and in one corner is my little 18 x 16 ft x 6 ft tall pen where my turkeys are. There is one huge oak tree that shades and hides (from above) my turkeys, and there is a fence line beside the pen which is a little grown up to help give a little privacy....but other than that, if you looked down on my house from above, you'd see nothing for MILES except houses, cleared yards, businesses, traffic, etc.
5 minutes ago I walked outside to feed my turkeys and when I opened the door, they all had a look I have NEVER EVER seen before. Every one of them was puffed up, all their feathers were sticking straight out...they all looked 2-3 times bigger than normal. While you all are starting the get the idea....I didn't. I stopped to just look at them because it was so unusual, and I honestly thought they were finally started to learn to strut, which I thought was neat/cute so I was going to watch. Then all of a sudden this HUGE....I mean to me it was GIGANTIC (hopefully by now you're really curious about what the "predator" is).... HAWK flies up into the big oak tree above the pen!!! I have never in the 13 years I've lived here EVER seen such a thing on or anywhere near my property. I was both mad (how DARE this critter even think about harming my turkeys) and facinated (it was the closest I've ever been to a hawk and it really was AMAZING to examine it so close.). Soon enough my anger and fear for my chicks overcame my facination and I decided if I scared the hawk bad enough maybe it wouldn't come back....so I clapped really loud and ever yelled (GET GET) very loudly......thats when my story gets even more unbelievable!!!!
Suddenly a SECOND hawk, which this whole time had been on the ground RIGHT at the base of the turkey pen (on the opposit side from me so I hadn't seen it) flys up as well!!!! YEP...not one, but TWO hawks in my back yard at my turkey pen IN THE MIDDLE OF TOWN!!!!! UN_FREAKING-BELIEVABLE!!!!! This one does the same as the first one....just flies up into the tree and sits there. Only when I yelled and clapped did it sort of fly off....I COULDN"T BELIEVE HOW UNAFRAID THEY WERE!!!!!
Obviously I'm really blown away by all this. Again, you have to understand that I'm not from nor ever lived in a country/rural area and currently live in the exact opposite, so I never have seen wild hawks before, let alone here in my urbanized back yard!!!! There is just enough cover from the huge Oak Tree and the grown up fence line that I can now imagine that this is probably an attractive place for them, especially with a potential lunch just waiting for them!
BTW...I spent the first 4 minutes before writing this looking up Hawks....no doubt about it....they were RED TAILED HAWKS. Now.....my question for you all......how determined will these dang predator's be? Will they be back? My pen is REASONABLY secure I THINK. It has a wood frame and has chicken wire on all 4 sides and no holes large enough for a hawk. On the top, I used that plastic netting that looks like chicken wire so the top is also "fenced in"...BUT......I ran the roll of plastic net across the top 2 times....each time along one side. The width of my pen is a little longer than the 2 rolls running along the sides, so there was about a 1.5 foot gap running the full length of my pen. SO I ran a third strip of netting along that gap in the roof. Since it overlapped each of the existing rolls by about 2.5 feet, I didn't tie them all together..... IN OTHER WORDS (since I've probably confused you now) it is POSSIBLE that a hawk COULD lift up the edge of the center piece of netting and scoot under it until it comes to the 1.5 gap that runs through the center of the roof (between the 2 edge pieces) and could get down into the pen. If a hawk did that I doubt he could get back out, but by then my turkeys would be dead so who cares! Am I being rediculus or are hawks desperate enough to find this breach and take advantage of it? To tie both sides of that center strip down would be a big job, but if you think I should, I will.???
Otherwise, I'm just generally interested in hearing what you all think about my experience? Where did these dang hawks come from??? How on earth did they discover my turkeys and try to get to them so fast (the pen and them have only been there about 3 weeks or less!!!!). Isn't it amazing how my turkeys knew to be scared and knew to puff up and try to look big!!!??? (instinct, I know, but still facinating) They've never seen ANY predators before. My dog scares them a little but they don't puff up like that.
ANyway, sorry to be so long, but this is a really big deal to me and I had to tell SOMEONE that could appreciate it! haha
Kevin
