Washingtonians

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
I forgot that juvenile Bald Eagles have striped tails; so do juvenile Golden Eagles, and North Bend is high enough and far enough east that Goldens are regular visitors.

 

[Chickielady]

I have heard quite a few stories of Owls, especially Great Horned Owls, walking right into the coop & grabbing a hen (a heavy hen) in one foot, and walking right back out, hen under foot like a squawking show....and off it flew away as if it just had gone to the grocery store.
This done at daybreak, the sky light.

Ogress, sorry about the bears.
Are the F&G guys coming out to trap them?
I worry more about the school kids than the apple trees.........but all the same....it must be frightening & frustrating.

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
Ohh, maybe so. I have heard something that I would guess sounds like a Mourning Dove around here. It was bigger than a crow is pretty much all I know. I'll look up the doves and see.

Well shoot. No, I just looked up Hawks and the tail had broad stripes underneath and was wider than a doves. I'm afraid this was a hawk - Cooper's or Northern Harrier. I live right near Chamber's Creek so we're surrounded by wooded areas. I just don't know what kind of hawks are living in the trees in this area. I know we have eagles in the neighborhood. I see them being chased by crows over Orchard Street and they're plentiful down at Chamber's Bay Golf Course which is right on the bay.

Great - now I'm going to be worried about them.

ETA: Pretty sure it was a Cooper's Hawk after looking more at the photos.

Harrier's are a possibility, although they like a more open run and usually take smaller prey than chickens.

Cooper's on a power pole about fifty feet from my house:

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
It should be. My great grandmother used to have a trivet hanging on her kitchen wall that said "The hurryier I go, the behinder I get".

That has been exactly how the last 2 days have been.
Missing breakfast due to running late, a super quick bite of cheese & tomato for "lunch" dying of thirst on the freeway but stuck in traffic and not having time to pull off for a tea or gatoraid...and on & on all 2 days, finally eating dinner at 9:30 dishes rinsed by 10..collapsing into bed at 11:30~~~
And the next day repeated.

I would have been in bad shape right after "missed breakfast."

The best thing about diabetes is that it enforces proper eating and sleeping habits pretty firmly.

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Haven't had these guys in the yard (at least when I've been home) since last spring, and I haven't lost any birds to THEM yet, but I always check the trees and sky before I free range anyone....

 

[Stumpfarmer]

Quote:
Well shoot. No, I just looked up Hawks and the tail had broad stripes underneath and was wider than a doves. I'm afraid this was a hawk - Cooper's or Northern Harrier. I live right near Chamber's Creek so we're surrounded by wooded areas. I just don't know what kind of hawks are living in the trees in this area. I know we have eagles in the neighborhood. I see them being chased by crows over Orchard Street and they're plentiful down at Chamber's Bay Golf Course which is right on the bay.

Great - now I'm going to be worried about them.

ETA: Pretty sure it was a Cooper's Hawk after looking more at the photos.

I get a ton of coopers hawks here, in fact, had one sitting on the quick shade frame that's sitting in my driveway when I came home from taking DS to school this morning!

Glad I didn't let the birds out before we left!!!

I've seen Goshawks over in East Portland, right about Powell Blvd and SE 82nd. Or probably the same pair of Goshawks multiple times. Coopers are more common by a long shot, but both Portland and Seattle have more big raptors than people realize.

 

[ChristineR]

This guy was down on the ground trying to shake open the door to my duck pen! He flew up on the arbor when he saw my husband through the window.

 

[Cloverleaf Farm]

Quote:
Naughty little beasts, aren't they??

About 2 weeks before I started seeing this pair in my yard, there was an article in our town's paper about one of them eating some woman's hen IN her yard, right in front of her poor children and two of their friends who had spent the night!

 

[Illia]

We have a pair of Bald Eagles that nest and even had a baby in some trees across the road from us. . . . Never bothered the poultry though.

 

[Chickielady]

I had to laugh hard out loud when a foreign tourist asked where he could see the Bald Eagles & take photos of them.........I laughed and said "There are hordes of them at the landfill every single day"
Most think these birds are "so magestic"

In reality they are just another big scavenger.
A symbol of our country?
A strong an fearless bird of prey?
You ought to see them among the crows & Jays, picking through the garbage like the scavenger they are.
In Idaho they are so thick at the dump, that some get killed every year getting run over by the big Front end loaders.
They run behind the big tires & grab food.
Yuck..some symbol of our country.
I guess they are after rats & mice there..........

None the less, a great place to see bald Eagles...............