Do you guys think this will ever be legal again without a bunch of permits? East Mississippi is absolutely loaded with them and I can't help but to think it harms small game populations. Not that I have a problem with hawks or birds of prey necessarily, but it just seems like in places the population is out of balance and I would think like all the other animals management would be a good thing. Why are they such a sacred thing?

There have been posts on this here before. I think it is past time for the law to be changed to allow limited take of birds of prey, especially common species like coopers hawks and redtails, when they are depredating livestock like pigeons, chickens and ducks.

Keith

No. Because sone beauracrat thinks a few birds are more important than the squirrel population.

No.

Definitely needs to be a season but never will be. The main question will be WHY? The majority don't hunt, live in urban areas, and could care less if hawks/owls are to prevalent and kill rabbits, quail, etc. We had a game warden(retired now) that made it known that personnel property needed to be protected and that surely there was some property that was being protected.

On their way South they are everywhere here nothing to see 6 from the same spot driving down the road, been running them off my chickens all summer they get to a real PITA never got a chicken yet but they love to hang out and look them over. Neighbor had Guinea fowl so we know when they are around.

If you have many birds of prey that means you have a lot of prey.

Cat are the number one killer of small wildlife there is, which include birds and rabbits. Raptors are eating to stay alive. Most house cat kill just to kill. What is common in your area may not be in other areas. That is not JMO it is a fact!

No. They should be. My family raises honest to pete Slovakian racing pigeons. Soon as I get team of fourty trained out to come home from about a hundred miles, the hawks and falcons hammer them. My kids are always bringing in their various leg bands. Killed off a bunch of my bluebirds. I have over 300 bluebird boxes out, and I gave up on working them. That was about 500 mountain bluebirds, and lots of tree swallows never living long past the fledgling stage.
You pay taxes on pigeons too. Considered livestock, but you can't protect them.

I don't disagree with anything you said Getting There, however, before this gets derailed my post is about hawks in particular, not other animals affecting small game mortality.

don't a few states have a season on them? I thought Mo. did, maybe they took away.

Around here birds of prey kill a lot more small game and birds then cats do. I live in town and see a variety of hawks, owls, and falcons kill everyday. App. ten years or so ago I had two islands I was trapping. If I didn't give my catch some over head cover, they were destroyed by owls, hawks, and even eagles. M-rats and beaver were near impossible to keep.

I hope not, I've seen awesome looking ones up close, saw a female rough legged hawk at about 15 ft when it flew over me while I was checking traps, it was going to a deer the coyotes killed

when I was a kid everybody knew killing chicken hawks was a good thing. there were 3 birds of prey. chicken hawks, owls and eagles. none of them were considered an asset.

Are they federally protected? Should write state legislators to make a season.

True. But cats aren't federally protected.

Mike

No, I don’t believe there will ever be a season on birds of prey. Simply for the fact that I’m not sure anyone knows how many there are. I don’t think it would take long to wipe out a huge number of them if there were to be a season and then what affect would that have on their prey. Possibly an explosion in their numbers?

I ride the trains and it seems like there is a hawk on every other light pole. Hardly any rabbits cross the tracks anymore.

I have said for years that is what is hurting the muskrat pop. As little as 10 years ago every pond and stream had a few rats in it. Now 1 out of 10 may have 1-2 rats in it. Hawks and owls sitting everywhere .Just drive down the toll road here on cloudy gloomy days this time of year and it is hard to go a mile with out seeing 2-3 on both sides of the road .Had a red tail catching my squirrels out of the back yard that my grand daughters had been feeding. One morning they had put out some walnuts so the would come down out of their nest. One was sitting in the yard just eating away . SWOOSH he was gone . Red tail nailed him . 4 year old cried for days. Hey if I could get some of our snowflake politicians on board that my grand babies had PTSD because of a raptor it may become legal to shoot them !!!!!

Legally you cannot even pick up one of their feathers, we are along long ways off from legally hunting raptors.

Not a chance...We can't even kill exotic swans here (Mute) that are invading our wetlands and pushing out native species...