I Have A Hawk Hanging Around Right At My House

Discussion in 'Science & Nature' started by John Brunner, Jul 8, 2021.

  1. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
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    I am happy for you that your owls appreciate the treats that moved in with you. It now have a snowy egret (In Wisconsin!) who lunches at my pond. He is there on the same log every day. We call him Bob. Just the one. And every night at about 1:15 a barred owl tries his hand at a hootenanny. I don't see him, just hear him.
     
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  2. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I set the Canon on a tripod, left it be, and put it in Movie mode so I could rip pics. I've yet to get a good "spread wings" shot, but it's my first day blowing the dust off of the Canon.

    I won't post a bunch of redundant "owl in a tree" pics, but these are clearer that the earlier ones.
    The 3rd pic is when he's just ready to launch himself. The ones after that are a blur.

    Owl Branch_3.png

    Owl Branch_4.png

    Owl Branch_5.png
     
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  3. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    Here are a few of the owl on the ground.
    I have "normal owl," "owl hunkered down ready to launch," and "launched owl."

    Owl Ground_0.png

    Owl Ground_1.png

    Owl Ground_3.png

    If I had a real internet connection rather than Verizon Wireless, I'd post the 6 minute vid of the perched owl looking around 360°, doing his best Linda Blair impression.

    This 12 megapixel camera will be more than sufficient. I reduce most of my pics from 4mb to about 650kb before uploading here anyway because of my slow internet speed (and because you can't really tell the resolution difference on a computer screen.) Once I start going through the manual and learning how to really use it, I may buy myself a decent tripod as a reward. I have a cheap plastic tripod that's been sufficient, but the adjustment is jerky...the plastic binds and the elevation jerks in large increments rather than glides.

    But I got some camera learnin' to do first. Right now, I'm afraid to change too many settings because I might not figure out how to get it back to "Normal." The sub-menus go at least to Dante's 5th Circle. Yeh, I'm Joe Tech all right...
     
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  4. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    When you have critters around like this, nothing else compares, huh Mary? I don't understand how you could have a snowy egret that far north!!! Buy him a cheesehead hat to wear back home! Otherwise, his friends will never believe him. That is insane. Regarding your barred owl, I've read they are curious enough that if you stand there and hoot at them, they just might come by to check you out.

    Yesterday I was looking for a vid or pic of an owl getting a possum. Audubon (and others) list possum as part of the barred owl's diet. It's weird, because all the other mammals are small things like chipmunks & voles, and then there's "opossum" wedged in there. It doesn't qualify it with "baby" or "small" or anything. There was an adult possum loitering under my owl tree the other day and I know there were a couple of owls above it. I kept waiting for carnage, but it never happened. So I was skeptical.

    I found a website that has animal carnage on it, and there was a brief vid of a barred owl taking a juvenile possum. And I've seen pics of them with other medium-sized mammals. So I verified that much. But I also came across a video of a blue heron catching a good sized live rabbit and swallowing it whole!!! I had no idea. It took a while, and the legs were still kicking, but he got it down. Here's the link:

    Blue Heron Catches and Swallows A Rabbit

    This is my Holy Grail:

     
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    Last edited: Aug 20, 2021
  5. Dwight Ward

    Dwight Ward Veteran Member
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    I don't regret a single egret. I do confess to a heron addiction.

    ( man, that's stoopid. how far will this guy go for a joke?)

    Fly me to the moon... la da da dee da.
     
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  6. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    My initial identification error seems to have been prescient. I went out with my camera this evening and a large bird flew off the tree and went ripping through the woods. Seemed kinda odd that the owls suddenly got skittish of me, and they don't tend to slalom around trees like that. Then I heard the cry. It's a hawk! I believe it to be a red shouldered hawk, although it may be a different species. For some reason I have a hard time identifying hawk species. Non-raptors are easier for me.

    I'm still struggling to get decent pics. It's especially hard with the hawk, because he won't sit still.

    hawk on ground.jpg

    Snapshot_0.png

    After hunting from the owl tree, he flew to the end of the house. I wondered if he might be sitting in the other small tree that the owls like to hunt from. So I went inside, looked out the spare bedroom window, and took this shot:

    Red Shoulder Hawk.jpg

    I didn't crop it to give a sense of how close to the ground they've been sitting...can't be more than 6 feet.

    Now I wonder if this bird will be back. I did not see any owls while the hawk was hanging around. I don't think they're enemies (apparently they will share the same nest in alternate years), but that doesn't mean they gotta socialize together.
     
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  7. Dwight Ward

    Dwight Ward Veteran Member
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    You're so fortunate to have all this wildlife on your property. It's making me want an out-of-town place. I may have some options there.

    In the past always I liked to see the wildlife around me but didn't pay much attention to how they need to live and to the encroachments we've made on their homes. Geez, like I need one more thing to feel guilty about. More hawk pics, okay?
     
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  8. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    Part of our encroachment actually increases habitat. I once read that creating subdivisions increased deer habitat because they are edge-dwellers; in other words, the more linear miles of cleared/wooded interface there are, the more deer habitat there is. On the other hand, the property next door to me (255 acres) did some timber cutting a few years ago, and that's when another pair of hawks got pushed onto my property. I have timber I've been told I could turn into money, and while I guess it's nice to know I have that resource, I don't need the cash.

    Heck, I purchased this place specifically because I like to shoot, and when I saw all these critters, I didn't want to chase them away. There used to be a lot more hunting around me when I moved here in 2010, and I liked the idea of being a sanctuary...not that I'm against hunting, but I don't need to hunt for food, and I like attracting more things to watch. Not long ago there was a pair of young bucks with their mother in my back yard, and they were learning to spar. Well, one of them was trying to goad the other into butting heads. The second one wasn't that into it. They were almost like puppies.

    Here's a hawk pic I just found while cleaning up the pics on my camera. Like so many of my pics, I took it while standing in my dining room:

    hawk on garden post.jpg

    This next one was pretty far away. You can tell the difference in "real focus" when the digital zoom kicks in...it's almost washed out

    Hawk in tree.jpg

    This one refused to cooperate:
    Hawk in tree frm back.jpg

    Here's a wannabe:

    downy woodpecker.jpg
     
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    Last edited: Aug 24, 2021
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  9. Dwight Ward

    Dwight Ward Veteran Member
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    Watcha mean wantabe? That's a black-capped chicadee hawk, if ever I saw one.

    Thanks for the photos. I'm jealous, really.

    Hunting ... I went deer hunting with some guys many years ago. They set me up to get a shot and I couldn't do it. The most I can do as far as killing wildlife to eat is to hook a fish and cook it. It's hypocritical because I like a good cheeseburger.

    I'm thinking that when it comes to survival I would be able to kill a deer or a cow. I'm not sure of that, though. Can a person live on pine needles?
     
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  10. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I'm pretty much the same way. One of my younger brothers hunted quite a bit. Venison is good, if it's taken in farm country where it eats corn as a steady diet. I've wanted to learn how to dress out a deer, just in case I really have to do it to eat. But that's not gonna happen. If things come to that, all the game will be slaughtered en masse the first week by people who know what they're doing. There won't be any respecting property lines.

    Regarding surviving on pine needles: I believe that Euell Gibbons did. Of course, it makes your farts smell like floor cleaner.
     
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  11. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    By the way: here are a couple of other pics I took through my patio door. I don't even have to go outside to hunt:

    Buck from deck.jpg

    Turkey deck.jpg
     
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    Last edited: Aug 24, 2021
  12. Teresa Levitt

    Teresa Levitt Veteran Member
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    you are in paradise....a wildlife sanctuary....almost holy ground these days...
    we live in a very small town...near all the big corn and soybean fields....

    there's lots of trees out here on the end of our dead end road...also a very long water drainage ditch for rainfall...

    it's full of frogs...clams...salamander...it holds water pretty good...all shaded...

    the town is coming out tomorrow with large equipment and remove lots of that...to increase drainage...i am fretting over this little eco system....

    luckily...some of the frogs have moved into the fish pond

    the pictures of the owls...hawk..deer...small bird are enchanting
     
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  13. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    Why would your town mess with such a place? Are there people fretting that it breeds mosquitoes? I guess if runoff and overflow present a danger, but still...

    My 1/2 mile long driveway cuts through a small thicket of woods. I don't know if it stays swampy or what, but during the right time of the year, the sound of the frogs is deafening. I roll down my windows as I drive through so I can get a better listen.

    Regarding lizards, there are tons of "skinks" out here:

    DSCF0233.JPG

    They have all sorts of coloring...iridescent blue is my favorite. These are likely a large chunk of what the owls and hawks are snagging from under that tree. They are also what brings the occasional black snake on to my deck.
     
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  14. Hedi Mitchell

    Hedi Mitchell Supreme Member
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    @John Brunner you have your own wildlife reserve going on there. :)
     
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  15. Teresa Levitt

    Teresa Levitt Veteran Member
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    you have a photo op everywhere.....oh......the town guy came out to let us know what they have to do...he's so nice...someone up above town ...complaining that water doesn't go out fast enough....
    we had a couple of big rains a while back....
    the water stays for a bit longer here..but we have no mosquito problem...we tie mosquito dunks on a string...float them..plus...small fish and frogs do the job...
    oh well...today's the day and we won't discourage the guys in their work...gonna be 105 heat index
     
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