Hawk at the birdfeeder!

[beergears]

Yesterday. Probably a Cooper Hawk.
He might be a juvenile, hard to tell. li' bastard is waiting for small bird traffic nearby..

 

[evanmars]

My mom just had the same problem in Michigan last week. She didn't get a picture though.

 

[bigjohnmilford]

Nice picture, it's nice to see birds of prey back in eastern mass. I grew up here and don't recall seeing very many growing up. Good old ddt. We had a hawk in the trees behind our house not too long ago. I've even heard of a growing bald eagle population in western mass.

 

[capcrnch]

I walked out to leave for work one day and saw this across the street...

Not sure what kind of bird it was, but it was easily winning the alpha omega contest.

When the bird he had in his "claws" moved, the "hawk?" would adjust and pin him down. There were a bunch of birds in the tree above him squaking and chirping their asses off.

Shortly after I took these pictures, he lifted off with his lunch and the rest of the birds in the tree shut up.

 

[Melana]

IMO birds of prey are cool animals. Thanks for the pictures!

 

[sTango]

very cool pictures. I love seeing raptors. I figuire if we give their prey free meals at the feeders its only a matter of time before they pick up on it.

 

[Mutilated1]

We have an owl near our neighborhood. He's about 2 maybe 2 1/2 feet tall - huge bird. I saw him last fall make a try at my cat - fur went flying !! I worry about my cat now, but at least he keeps the squirrels and rodents down.

 

[RICLARK]

I walked out to leave for work one day and saw this across the street...

Not sure what kind of bird it was, but it was easily winning the alpha omega contest.

When the bird he had in his "claws" moved, the "hawk?" would adjust and pin him down. There were a bunch of birds in the tree above him squaking and chirping their asses off.

Shortly after I took these pictures, he lifted off with his lunch and the rest of the birds in the tree shut up.

I dont know what they are either but they get damn Big and one flew into my Fairing on my Truck when I was on my way up to Clare the other Day It was So Loud I thought I blew a Tire until I looked in the Mirror and seen it flopping around on the Road and A Bunch Of Cars Swerving to Miss It.

 

[Evan!]

The greatest big bird we've seen at our place was a pileated woodpecker eating some bugs from an old rotting stump in our yard. Those things are beautiful, and this one was huge---at least 16" from head to tail.

 

[eriktlupus]

when we bought this house there was a barn owl that resided in duh my barn/garage and a red-tailed hawk pair that hunted the area. the owl has unfortunatly moved on but i see the hawks every summer

 

[david_42]

I see a variety of hawks and other large birds here. The turkey vultures are probably the largest, although the herons are taller. It's fun to watch the vultures circling and circling, just like in the cartoons. Never seem to have my camera handy though.

 

[Beerthoven]

An eagle lives in the woods behind my house. The thing is huge. Every time it flies over me I feel like a Nazgul is approaching. Last weekend I saw it in a tree a few backyards over eating a squirrel. I wish it would take a cat or two.

Eagles are pretty common around here, but they tend to stay out by the big lake/reservoir. I'm not exactly sure what kind of eagles they are, but I think they may be bald eagles because their heads are white.

 

[beergears]

I was in my small kayak on the Charles river once, and a blue heron was around. He moved ahead of me once, then went back upstream.
He finally came back downstream, gliding slowly 12 ft above me, wings spread like 10 ft or more. Awesome sight, gorgeous animal!

 

[Brewing Clamper]

A couple of years ago I was feeding my then 1 yr. old son when I spotted a raptor in my back yard. As it turns out it was a Cooper's Hawk and it still visits my back yard with regularity, maily because the SWMBO always puts out bird feed. This hawk figured out a great way to catch small prey. It would chase them into my sliding glass door, then pick them up. It did this at least 3 times that I saw. Since I had just gotten a camcorder for xmas, I had it out and was messing with it when I witnessed the first time. Check it out:

[youtube]siOR0FK6BdU[/youtube]

 

[Yooper]

Wow- cool video. My husband (wildlife biologist and ornithologist) really thought it was neat. Thanks for sharing it!

 

[Skins_Brew]

When I was on deployment last year (I am in the navy) we spent most of our time in the north arabian gulf. We were never more then 15 miles off the coast. Well, at some point a hawk took up residence at the top of our mast. For some reason, regular birds would be attracted to the ship (might just be we got real close to the shore and then they follow us out and have no where to go). Anyway, the hawk would swoop down on a regular basis and catch the smaller birds mid flight and then land somewhere up high and have himself a feast. He would always leave a pretty nasty mess after himself, but it was pretty cool to be outside and out of no where the hawk swoops over your head and catches his lunch. I think there might a picture on my ships LAN and i will check for it when i get back to work. The hawk stayed with us until my ship left the gulf, and luckily and he was smart enough to fly back to land. Many birds that follow us are too stupid to do that and end up starving to death or flying in front of the various radars and antennas and getting cooked to death.