In my yard eating several critters.

Can't tell in the pics but this thing is big, like the size of a big cat.

Pretty sure its not a pelican.

PS: OT

Thats a Hawk---they are great for keeping the mices away!!!

It's also Miles when he transforms as he is a shape changer.

Looks to be some type of Falcon, I love birds of prey, you gotta respect what that bird can do. Dont chase it away, they get rid of mice, rats and even some small domesticated critters too.

Let me rephrase that, it looks like a Merlin Falcon to be more specific.

We have a coy pond right near his hunting ground. I thought he was going for them but I think the squirrels and the mice are his target.

Just going to keep our 10 month old out of the area for a while. Right now she is just light enough for him to carry away I think.

It could also be a Northern Harrier, those are more known to be in your area.

Peregrin falcon? They catch other birds in mid-air. Really interesting to watch.

It's clearly and African swallow.

He said it was the size of a cat, that would be too large for a Peregrin, besides, they are not indigenous to Florida.

Here's a pic of a Merlin.....good call....

When my wife and I lived on Camano Island, there was a bald eagle's nest in a tree. You know, you get a feeling for how HUGE those things are when you look at thier nest. I could have slept in there! Everyonce in a while (twice in a year), the male would fly low enough that you could get a good view of his 7+foot wingspan. Freaky looking.

Bald Eagles are just big seagulls. You should see them pic away at a trawl fishing net that has fish leftovers in it, scavengers. I'll have to dig up a pic.

Hawks and Falcons, much cooler birds.

Yeah, but there BIG

Looks like a Red Tailed Hawk to me...

Let them munch on the rodents. They also kill Snakes and eat them as well.

I have a whole bunch of them here as well as a few Peregrin Falcons that they let go on the mountain behind my shop....

If I had to be a bird, thats what I would wanna be!

BTW I saw one swoop down and carry off a full grown middle sized house cat in my dads yard... That was one hell of a fight in the air that the cat did not win! They crashed into our well pump out building and fought a whioe longer. I walked right up on them as the Hawk was ripping the skin off the cat while it was still alive...... SWEET!

Thanks,

I happen to be eating lunch at my desk today.

I've seen one swoop down and nab a squirrel out of a tree. They are pretty cool to watch, tree rat never saw it coming.

This summer we were on Whiskeytown lake. This Bald eagle snatched a trout right out of the water near us.
He flew around us so we could see his catch.
It was pretty funny, because the trout was facing foward with his head looking side to side.

KT

At my office, my business partner (Mom) has a picture window with bird feeders. She loves watching the birds up close, as the window is mirrored and they can't see in.

One day, she had all of these baby birds feeding at her feeder and she was so excited.

Two seconds la\ter, this big hawk came and slammed into the feeder picking up one of the birds and carried it away.

I heard the screaming and came running... my Mom was in shock!

She spent the next hour or two trying to scare it away. He still hangs around...

So now her "bird feeder" has taken on a twist!

If we are going to tell stories I have one.

Anchored up in a bay, Kenai Pennisula, Alaska. Throwing some old bread out to the seagulls around the boat, out of knowwhere come a bold eagle. It attempts to snag a gull, grabed it then dropped it. The gull is stunned kind of flapping around in the water. All the other gulls beat it out of there quick. Eagle circles around and comes back in this time has no problem picking up the gull. Flies about 30 yards away to a rocky cliff and starts eating the gull. 15 minutes later it flies away with the remains.

I saw a hawk swoop down and nab a sparrow (or some other smallish song bird) out of a tree in my backyard. A gaggle of these little birds happened to be perching, and the tree exploded when that hawk came down. A few of them flew into the large window on my back porch

Nice story about the cat...i'm having lunch at my desk too today

Sorry guys, It's not a Merlin or Harrier. It is a Red Tailed Hawk. Specifically it is an immature Red Tailed Hawk. Next year his plumage will be much darker. His tail, which is horizontally banded this year will be rust colored next year and he'll loose the speckled breast. Based on the description of his size it is a male (females are larger). He's most likely eating rodents on your property. This species will only in very rare cases take avian prey. He's a good thing to have around. He also appears to be in very good health.

-Ben M. (licensed falconer)

ps - some of you may recal that my old avatar was... an immature Red Tailed Hawk.

(edit) pps - just saw Jake's post. As usual, Jake is correct.

Well, they are kind of like the Chinese, they all look alike to me. Just kidding, it is hard to tell from that picture however, I am a huge fan of the red tail hawk. I like all the raptors or birds of prey, I have small falcon that frequently comes around here once in awhile and another friend on the other side of town that breeds them. Here are a few pictures of some Red Tailed Hawks in early years.

They do look like that.

Another

This picture would make a great avatar.




With a captions like :you talking to me?"

I first started flying in South Dakota back in 1967. There was a Bald Eagle there that would swoop past little Cessnas in the traffic pattern with it's talons extended. I think it had a nest nearby. Scared the crap out of more than one student pilot. Learning to fly is hard enough without being attacked by a Raptor!!
Cheers, Elliot

Here's what that bird will look like in a year when he has adult plumage. I cropped out the bottom of the picture for those who don't want to see a worked-over rabbit. I took this photo at a distance of about 18 inches from the subject. We hunted together for 2 years. He was released back into the wild last spring.

-Ben M.

Now listen here, I said listen here my boy, I, I, I coulda sworn that was a chicken-hawk, I said a chicken-hawk.

We have a couple pairs near the shop, they hunt in the field back there..

Over on Hilton Head, I watched a Bald eagle flying for about 10 minutes, called out a couple friends, and as we stood there in complete awe, he swooped down, and nailed a rodent no more than 15 feet from us, and he just sat there on it, looking at us for a couple minutes, and he started raising all hell when we tried to flank him..




M

had some kinda of hawk and it's partner fly the tree line behind my house. just one of those things that's really cool to watch. so one day i come home and it was laying dead in my side yard. front of the wings all torn up and bones were broken, i thought it tried to take down a single engined plane.
it was such a majestic being that i dug it's grave.

Here's my hawk encounter.
Just caught a small bird during a rain storm, and decided to take a break on my mail box.

Cool. That one's a Coopers Hawk. They are tenacious little hunters. They take avian prey and do it with amazing ability. They can chase down almost any bird in level flight that is their size or smaller. They are smart too. They will often spot feeding birds from a distance, identify a large view-blocking feature like a board-fence, tree, car, etc. and then come in fast with this object between them and the quary. At the last second they pop out from behind the fence/tree/bush doing about 45mph and the quary only has time to say "Oh shi" and it's over.

-Ben M.

Here's what Buddy (see previous pic) looked like in his first-year plumage. They go through quite an apearance change with their first moult. Kinda miss the little guy, but I'm sure he's found a nice lady friend by now. And his kids won't go hungry - he developed into quite the hunter.

-Ben M.

What an awesome bird. I would love to hold one of those. It looks so peaceful and tame on your arm there. Hard to believe it could take a finger off in one shot. I have the utmost respect for those birds.

It can't be an African Swallow, its not carrying a coconut!

I see two or three hawks every day on my commute to and from work. Sometimes sitting in trees, sometimes soaring and sometimes staying exactly in one spot, hovering in an updraft over a field. Neat.

During a trip out to Vancouver Island a few years ago, my wife and I stayed at a bed & breakfast in Hamilton, BC.
The proprieters knocked on our door one afternoon and asked us if we wanted to watch them feed the eagle.
It seems for the past 15 years these people had been feeding this eagle and one before it, every Sunday afternoon. They walked out into the street and they could see the eagle sitting 200 feet up in it's nest in a tree. The guy would take a raw chicken leg and start to windmill his arm and the eagle would drop out of the nest. Then the guy would fling this chicken leg up in the air and the eagle would grab it mid flight about 20 feet over our heads at an incredible speed. That was a neat thing to see.

Great pics. Where I work on Whidbey Is. I see bald eagles ,red tails, harriers almost everyday. Also the occasional golden eagle although not that often. I've seen 9 baldys on the beach around a dead seal. When you see a baldy trying to pick a duck out of the water you know why we use that word to mean "git yer head down". The duck usually survives as the eagle isn't amphipious. Thanks for reminding my of the great place I live. Sometimes I forget.

European swallow.....