Every morning about 8ish and I'm still in bed, but I hear a gaggle of noise that I believe could be hawks, or crows, it goes on for 15 minutes or so and that's it, but daily.
When I lived in the burbs of DC, the chatter of songbirds would wake me in the morning. I have plenty of birds out here in the country, but it seems to be the sound of hawks awaken me. There used to be a lot of crows, but their numbers have diminished.
Hawks and crows can be competitors (and sometimes dinner) The crows beat off my owl couple in the piney woods. I try to discourage them all because all have eyes on my chickies.
Yeh, if I had chickens or other fowl, my relationship with the critters around here would be a lot more conflicted.
i am glad this thread got reborn...the birds...yes.. this past spring we had a pair of the true red headed woodpeckers nesting here...paw built special feeders for them...they had one hatchling...and we watched the parents take turns teaching it how to go up the cedar pole to the suet cages.
I've never seen a redheaded woodpecker. I have lots of pileated woodpeckers (I bet there's at least 3 pairs & their offspring on my property), and then these downy (or are they hairy) woodpeckers: The pileated are way too skittish for me to get a decent shot of them. I mostly see them flying in pairs.
We have a red-shouldered hawk that hangs around in our back yard, sitting on the fence quite frequently. I think he's probably looking for our wild bunnies that come into the yard to munch on the grass. Sometimes he likes to sit on the corner of the roof, just for a change of scenery I guess.
I think I saw my first falcon here a few days ago. It flew fast, low to the ground, and had angular wings (kind of like a big starling.) I, too, have a ton of rabbits. They are not very smart, nor do they seem to be scared of me. As soon as it gets dark, the trigger the motion detector floods on my garage...all night long. They must be what keeps the hawks hanging around, because the squirrels are smart enough to not venture out into the open field. Here's where one of my hawks sits, just for a change of pace:
Sounds like the crows are on their way to work, emptying garbage cans and cleaning radiators of automobiles. I'm not sure of their habits but they are kin to the Ravens of Nevada. They live miles away from where they spend their days, sometime as much as 30 miles or more. A raven will empty a large dumpster in an hour scrounging for a bite to eat. They love landfills and are really tuff, some live to be 35 years old and they mate for life. They are on a tight schedule and on time as if they were an airline. I would stand outside at dusk and watch the pack in flight heading for Shoshone Ca where they lived due to the natural hot springs there. A pair of male and female landed on a power pole at the edge of my Brothers place and he told me one got electrocuted and fell to the ground dead. The mate landed on the ground and stood there all day waiting for the bird to get up. It finally realized it was not getting up and it flew off to Shoshone at dusk. I think these crows have very similar habits.
This .... I tried to print the hawk photo my daughter met on a walk near her apt but it w ould not print. I do not have a smart phone. Oh well I tried..
It's interesting that I frequently see hawks sitting on utility wires all up & down the main roads as cars whiz by, and they are unphased. Yet I cannot walk by my patio door inside my house without spooking one way at the end of my back field. So I can understand ones in urban settings being blasé about humans & pets & other stuff.
Here they find power poles and lines to be great vantage points and often return there with a mouse in their beaks. So I actually do find them useful as well as fascinating.
Well, that family of Barred Owls that visited by my deck every afternoon in the summer of 2021 took a year off, and now a single Barred Owl is visiting that same tree. I noticed it Wednesday evening (2 days ago) when my neighbors dropped me off after we had dinner. I did not see it last night, but it was there tonight. I was surprised because we had a terrible thunderstorm go through...a real down pour and strong winds beating the rain against the house and taking down small limbs. When I looked outside after the storm, the daggone owl was sitting in that tree looking at the ground for goodies. This owl is an adult and is pretty large...it's noticeably bigger than the mother owl that was here with her children. I have no idea how to judge owl age. It might be 2 years old, or it might be older than that. I do recall that the large owl species do not hit breeding age until their second year (small owls are ready after their first year), so maybe one of 2021's babies has staked out this as his/her territory. I'm glad to see it. This is my 13th year here and it's only the second time I've had owls hanging around in clear view like that. I have sometimes heard a Barred Owl off in the woods, and last year a Great Horned Owl occasionally took up late-evening residence in a tree right by my living room window...made me jump out of my skin more than once. Both species are year-round residents in Virginia. Click the pics to hear their calls: Barred Owl Great Horned Owl
We had a squall of storms come through and dump a fast 1/2" of rain. Another line of storms with another 1/2" of rain is due in 2 hours. The a 3rd line of storms with another full inch of rain is due 2 hours after that. The current storm just passed,but it's still sprinkling. I look out my window, and that daggone own is perched on her favorite tree, likely grabbing a snack in between storms. Just like 2 years ago, my presence doesn't bother her one little bit.