Red Tail Hawks

Well recently a pair has taken residency in my back yard.( I'm surrounded by 140 acres. They perch in the same tree every morning and evening. I don't mind them, beautiful to look at from the back porch having my coffee in the morning and evening.
Now the cat isn't so thrilled and I'm sure they are feasting themselves on the local rodent population, plus I have an abundance of sparrows wanting to nest in my barn. Plus it saves from having to shoot dozens of squirrels invading my place and driving my dogs crazy.
They are welcome anytime. Plus hopefully they get every snake they see. Just found a snake skin behind the barn today.
Who else enjoys watching them? Sarge

Awesome. I love hawks and eagles. I could watch them all day. There's been several times on my line where I was in a rush to get finished checking traps and would land up stopping and watching hawks and eagles until I couldn't see them anymore

Very much so. This last deer season I was walking out along a trail to find a young male grounded. It did not notice him still I was right on him. Given he did not take off was the first red flag something was off. I wrapped him up after attempting to coax him into flight. Took him to a DNR officer and he took him to the local falconer. It was determined he might have had lead poizoning. Great beautiful creatures. Though they will take your chickens if they can.

I love to watch them fly and to listen to their calls. Interesting bird but a killer never the less.

Adam, it's the same with me. I love watching them. My mom lived and is laid to rest in Montana, she loved watching "her" eagles.
I also enjoy watching geese fly over my place. I have a deer stand where every year the geese fly this particular pattern and it brings them directly over my stand and usually at the same time every evening..
Also love to hear an Owl that shows up from time to time.

I know hawks and owls are enemies, so I wonder how all this will play out. Sarge

SGT.C that memory you shared brought a smile to me. Wow I hope you slay them geese every year. My neighbor would love a setup like that. The hawk will win

I don't shoot them. They sometimes land in the pond in front of the house. About 100 yards away. I have a small version of Green Acres here (geese, yotes, cattle, goats, cats dogs, ducks(mallards), but no hogs yet. And yes, i do have an old pitchfork. LOL Been watching a few does directly behind the house about 75 yards. I do shoot a deer or two during the season from the porch while having coffee. But for know, they are safe. Sarge

Also chickens. They are housed in a Quonset type building with chain link fencing buried. Have had no problems with possums, coons, skunks and yotes. Matter of fact, I have witnessed yotes pace back and forth trying to figure out how to get to them. I listen to the chickens and they will tell me when they are not happy. Have shot a few right next to the chicken hut as we call it. Cage traps are set year round, and all non wanted visitors find there way to the pit. Sarge

Hawks are our worst predator down South. Quail chicks and poults take a beating from them. I do not share everyone’s opinion on them, lol. I think they need regulated like every other predator. We try and keep a healthy rabbit and rodent population for them to help save the fowl. Did I mention they need regulated as well?!?!

I got the opportunity to watch a red-tail eat a grey squirrel. It was a fierce display of-hurry-up-and-eat-it.
I was no more than 12 yards from it, sitting in my truck. The whole time it was feeding, it was being dive bombed by black birds from above. It was never phased. Once he opened up the hide, he worked on the front leg until it was freed up at the shoulder and swallowed it bone and all.

I fully understand where your coming from. That's way out chicken hut is built bomb proof so to speak. I do love hearing quail and seeing turkeys. But I believe yotes, coons, possums, fox, bobcats take a lot more then hawks. Since this is farm country, our rodent population is bulging at times. Sarge

Side note. I have seen more rabbits lately then I have seen in years. But I'm sure the preds will be back soon. Shot a yote the other day that was waiting to eat the after birth from a cow but the will not touch the calfs. He won't be doing that again.

I see them often in the hay fields around here when I am cutting. They follow the tractor getting field mice and have seen em get snakes also. They are efficient at doing what they do.

I know the feeling... way to many here .

Never understood the hype around watching hawks. Maybe because we are very overpopulated in our area. I used to commute to a trade school about 15 miles of highway, some days I would count the hawks and see 40-50 average in that short section of highway one way let alone the ones I missed. Everything needs managed, why the protection?

They face a 90% mortality rate in their first year of life. I’d say Mother Nature is managing them just fine.

Hahaha do you work for the PGC? No way its 90% mortality. Who performed that study?

im in agreement...here in farm country we have WAY too many hawks and eagles. I have 6 nest within 5 miles..one nest in my woods....see them all the time,have for yrs. I do like the eagle sound though

They were just made our state bird. If we had one, it would be too many.

Gnats are terrible bad here right now. Was just on the news how the local humane society has several young redtail hawks. Apparently the gnats bother the young ones to the point they bail out of the nest to early..I've heard where gnats and flies where bad enough to run some females birds off their nest before eggs hatched. Never heard about the fledges bailing to early because of bugs....So it seems to many of anything in nature is not good for something else in nature..
I'm pretty sure it was probably getting rid of the DDT the reason we have more birds..Maybe why more ticks and gnats too?? But we seem to have more of just about every kind of bird here.some say it has to do with climate change as it's warmer??
I got no idea just know there seems to be no shortage of birds of prey or geese, swans, cranes, pelicans, cormorants, etc,etc..

Mac

Let manage the deer population, Michigan had 56,000 car deer accidents last year. Nice to hear others like watching our raptors. JMO

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Just had the coolest Fathers day on record.

I'm not much of a raptor fan but I will tolerate Chicken (Redtailed) Hawks. The one major thing (change) that saved the birds of prey was when the chicken production went totally INDOORS. I tell that to Raptor Recovery people and they have no clue what I am talking about. It wasn't the "acceptance of natural order" as a lot of huggers want you to believe that caused their comeback. In the 50's, 60"s and even into the 70"s every chicken/turkey/duck raising operation had a 12 ga. single shot handy to to put each predatory visiter in its grave ASAP! Hawk, owl, crow --it made no difference they were eliminated. And now since the birds are "under roof" the hawks are tolerated. I have fed hawks and eagles from my carcass piles here on the farm for years (If people can feed chickadees and juncos then I can feed hawks and eagles). I have had as many as 11 mature bald eagles (white headed buzzards to some) perched on and around my coon pile along with an assortment of buteos (redtails, red shoulders etc. etc) at one time. They were so accustomed to me that when I would take a few carcasses down with the tractor to dump on the pile, they would just walk out of the way (not fly) and wait until I dumped them. Then they would walk back up to the pile and continue feeding. I led burning crews on CRP grass fields for over 10 years and the amount of hawks that showed up to feed on the injured rodents and rabbits was pretty impressive. As far as favorites to observe I go with a Cooper's Hawk darting through the timber, a Sparrow Hawk nabbing grasshoppers from a cut hay field,,,,,,,, or a Marsh (a.k.a. Harrier or White Butt) Hawk suspended over the cattails......... That is Nature to me. the mike

Man can't manage the deer population worth a dam.
We have way too many deer and until we can get them under control I'm vehemently against "managing" raptors.
I can see the down side of too many deer on walk thru my property but I see no downsides of supposedly too many raptors.

You might not see a downside, if you don't snare out west, but I lose coyotes fox and bobcats to them dang things every year. They can't wait till I get the skin off so they can feast, gotta take it off "their way", and there ain't enough dental floss in the country to put them back together again!

You might not see a downside, if you don't snare out west, but I lose coyotes fox and bobcats to them dang things every year. They can't wait till I get the skin off so they can feast, gotta take it off "their way", and there ain't enough dental floss in the country to put them back together again![/quote]
Totally agree with u fellow dinosaur

We're on the same page. They'll wipe out free range chickens very quickly.

They are beautiful birds and I enjoy watching them........about ten miles away from my chickens.

I don’t even know what the PGC is. But, I’m a licensed falconer and have seen that statistic quoted in various books and study materials. Part of the reason we aren’t allowed to take birds from the wild that have survived their first year of life. I’ve actively monitored nests for trapping reasons and have seen, on countless occasions, all of the offspring wiped out before fledging. I can’t give you specific details on the data, I just know it’s what I’ve always seen/read.

Lose 3 otters in 60' to eagles and tell me how great they are. It all boils down to if your ox has yet been gored. And it will be.

Yep, kinda makes you not so fond of the bird brains after your work is all for nothing! Had a high dollar Wy cat ate up back some years, and I have not cared for natures air force since!

Man could manage the deer population just fine but he won't because those permit fees are cash cows to the various states game departments. They don't want lower populations, they want the money. It's like welfare for the DNR, collect the money and the farmers and drivers foot the bills. Lower tag fees, give away bonus tags and make it mandatory to kill a doe before an antlered permit is issued. I remember when we didn't have deer and the first deer season was when I was in high school and if a deer was hit on the highway it would make the front page of our newspaper. Now in the accident reports in the paper it's car vs. deer year round and not just a few either.

If you lived around here you will lose fur to raptors every year. They need managed like everything else.

Raptors are managed, they just aren’t hunted.

I should have said instead of a blanket protection management strategy a management strategy that allows a limited take of raptors should be in place. I can't imagine the redtail population here having any trouble with that. I don't understand the people that think all raptors need protection from any sort of take any more than I do the people that are of the same mind about wolves.

Look into how wind farms are allowed a “take.” I get what you’re saying, but overturning the MBTA would be nearly impossible. I’m pretty sure there are avenues through which someone can legally eliminate depredating raptors. I’m all for management and I’m not saying blanket protection, either. I just don’t know enough about them and their populations to really formulate an opinion, either way.