Darrell wrote:When I was working nights, I was privileged to see resident horned owls silently dive bomb the property's rabbits, and to occasionally see one perched near the entrance. Too cool.
We have some resident red tailed hawks at work too, often see them soaring/hunting over and around the building. We've also had some different hawks arrive during winter, doing some research and talking with experts, they appear to be ferruginous hawks. Their behavior and flying is markedly different than the red winged hawks, larger, less agile, and lower flying. We'd often see them nailing small rodents out behind the plant.
Yeah the Ferrugie is an open county bird that hunts mainly from the air. The red-tail is more of a "sit and wait" kind of flier...but when they go, they go hard. A well-trained ferruginous hawk is hell on jackrabbits though.
Also keep an eye out for another winter visitor....the rough legged hawk. Another long winged, open country flier. They're really just mousers though.
Years ago I was hunting squirrels just before dark, about a quarter mile from the house. I had knocked one down from a tree, then went to claim it. I picked up the squirrel then sat down at the base of a large beech tree. Laid the squirrel in the leaves beside my leg while I watched the tree tops for another tree-rat. Suddenly, I was amazed to hear wings flapping and I was covered in wings and wind. About the time I recovered, I saw a big owl flapping off through the trees with my squirrel.
Owls gotta eat too. I figured he needed it worse than I did.
Greg wrote:Now I need to figure out what kind of hawk lives in the trees just behind my back yard.
If you can get a pic, post it here.
Got one. Saw him sitting on my backboard one morning.
IMG_20160829_063459.jpg
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Maybe we're just jaded, but your villainy is not particularly impressive. -Ennesby
If you know what you're doing, you're not learning anything. -Unknown
Sanity is the process by which you continually adjust your beliefs so they are predictively sound. -esr
Maybe we're just jaded, but your villainy is not particularly impressive. -Ennesby
If you know what you're doing, you're not learning anything. -Unknown
Sanity is the process by which you continually adjust your beliefs so they are predictively sound. -esr
JKosprey wrote:Greg, that's a red-tailed hawk. I'm guessing a male, because he looks like a little one.
Thank you. We've been seeing him or one like him perched in the trees behind the house. First time one of us saw him so close to the house.
We have rabbits and squirrels behind the house, whose numbers seem to fluctuate.
Maybe we're just jaded, but your villainy is not particularly impressive. -Ennesby
If you know what you're doing, you're not learning anything. -Unknown
Sanity is the process by which you continually adjust your beliefs so they are predictively sound. -esr
We have a lot of red tails in my area of NJ (not the NJ you see on the Sopranos). I've seen them dive-bomb a few times... very cool. Several years ago, I was privileged to have a Great Horned Owl hang out in the trees behind my shop for a few days. The talons on that thing...
When I was working at Patuxent River NAS, there was a pair of falcons (I think, I'm no ornithologist) that had taken up residence in the top of the hangar. One afternoon, a sparrow (or something small like that) was cruising by, parallel to the hangar doors, which were open to let in the air. BAM! Just a puff of feathers, and the falcons had a nice meal.
Birds gotta swim, fish gotta fly, assholes gotta ass, until the day they die.
