TylerDeadPine wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 8:10 pm Bird thread! Yes!

Almost every day I'll see a red tailed hawk and they never cease to impress me. They look and sound amazing. People in California generally don't seem to care meanwhile I'm ready to cause a 20 car pileup to get a good look

There are a bunch of different subspecies of red-tailed hawks. The ones in the Midwest are quite a bit lighter than the ones out further west like the one in your picture.

Last year, I had a *really* close look at one but wasn't smart enough to get out my camera or my phone. The hawk was sitting on my neighbor's fence, scoping out their chicken coop. Neighbor wasn't home, and I didn't want them coming home to an empty coop and/or dead chickens, so I went right up to the hawk to try to scare it. I got up to about 3 feet from the hawk and they did not care. They wanted chicken for dinner. I started flailing my arms like an idiot and finally the hawk moved, but only a few feet away. It took a good five minutes to get the hawk to leave the area.

I look back at it thinking that the hawk could've done a LOT of damage to me if they wanted to. Not sure if that was smart of me.

jfv wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 8:26 pm

TylerDeadPine wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 8:10 pm Bird thread! Yes!

Almost every day I'll see a red tailed hawk and they never cease to impress me. They look and sound amazing. People in California generally don't seem to care meanwhile I'm ready to cause a 20 car pileup to get a good look

There are a bunch of different subspecies of red-tailed hawks. The ones in the Midwest are quite a bit lighter than the ones out further west like the one in your picture.

Last year, I had a *really* close look at one but wasn't smart enough to get out my camera or my phone. The hawk was sitting on my neighbor's fence, scoping out their chicken coop. Neighbor wasn't home, and I didn't want them coming home to an empty coop and/or dead chickens, so I went right up to the hawk to try to scare it. I got up to about 3 feet from the hawk and they did not care. They wanted chicken for dinner. I started flailing my arms like an idiot and finally the hawk moved, but only a few feet away. It took a good five minutes to get the hawk to leave the area.

I look back at it thinking that the hawk could've done a LOT of damage to me if they wanted to. Not sure if that was smart of me.

Haha - yeah the ones out here are absolutely beautiful. I had some raised bed gardens I built that started getting decimated by rats & squirrels. Then a red tailed hawk moved into the canyon behind our place. Awesome. We would hear it in the morning - I miss that guy

jfv wrote:
Last year, I had a *really* close look at one but wasn't smart enough to get out my camera or my phone. The hawk was sitting on my neighbor's fence, scoping out their chicken coop. Neighbor wasn't home, and I didn't want them coming home to an empty coop and/or dead chickens, so I went right up to the hawk to try to scare it. I got up to about 3 feet from the hawk and they did not care. They wanted chicken for dinner. I started flailing my arms like an idiot and finally the hawk moved, but only a few feet away. It took a good five minutes to get the hawk to leave the area.

I look back at it thinking that the hawk could've done a LOT of damage to me if they wanted to. Not sure if that was smart of me.

A hawk will only get 1 chicken out of a flock on a single day. They don't waste good food by indiscriminately killing. We used to avoid having a rooster since they are noisy and most of the ones I've encountered have been straight up assholes, but nothing has protected our hens from hawks better than the rooster we have now. He's a big mofo...bigger than any of our local hawks, and almost as big as the barred owls we have in our woods. Crowed hisself hoarse the other day chasing off a hawk and warning his ladies to find cover. He has a whole set of different calls depending on the time of day and what is happening in the yard.

I once tried throwing stuff at a red shouldered hawk that was sitting about 15 feet up in a tree near the hen yard and it didn't do shit, even when sticks were bouncing off the branch he was on. Dude was determined, but they won't go after a human. We're too big to fuck with

djimbe wrote: Tue Apr 08, 2025 6:42 am they won't go after a human. We're too big to fuck with

That's what my instinct was telling me at the time, that the hawk wouldn't attack... unless I was going after their nest or something. But the risk was not zero.

I have an employee that's starting a falconry apprenticeship. Updates to follow

Gramsci wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 9:37 am

jfv wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 8:15 am

Gramsci wrote: Mon Apr 07, 2025 6:49 am One for all you ornithologists out there… I present to you, the great Jimi Hendrix parakeet invasion.

https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019 ... ver-london

Beautiful birds, but there are *tens of thousands* of them!?

I'll have to seek them out when I'm in London next week. I, for one, welcome our new parakeet overlords.

Hampstead Heath is inundated with them.

Ok, I absolutely believe it now.

I checked into my hotel 2 hours ago and just walked along the Thames to the Fuller’s brewery… I am guessing I saw no fewer than a dozen of them.

I live in the Bronx, so I see the red-tailed hawks at the Botanical Garden pretty often. They batter those squirrels good, and then just stand on them? I suppose feeling the life drain out. Hardcore.

We have Pileated Woodpeckers in the woods around our house. The males seek out a hollow tree and do short bursts of rapid knocking on it to signal "this is my territory". Sounds like a loud drum roll burst. Sunday they woke up me and the 5th grader and were at it for a few hours. Yesterday my wife got an awesome video of 2 males arguing and chasing each other on the trees next to our driveway. Seeing one male is special enough, but seeing two go at it was wild. The leaves will be fully out in a few weeks and we won't see them again until fall. They're understory birds and hide real effectively in the crowns of the trees.

Greetings from west London.

Normal people, when visiting, look for normal stuff.

I seek out birds. Some I'm familiar with. Others not so much. And yeah, ring-necked parakeets are around. I tried to get them to land on me but was not successful.

Swan butt.



Love the eyes.



Lots of water fowl.



And this is as close as I got to a parakeet.

jfv wrote: Fri Apr 18, 2025 5:11 pm Greetings from west London.

Normal people, when visiting, look for normal stuff.

I seek out birds. Some I'm familiar with. Others not so much. And yeah, ring-necked parakeets are around. I tried to get them to land on me but was not successful.

Swan butt.

Love the eyes.

Lots of water fowl.

And this is as close as I got to a parakeet.

You might already be aware of this, but you can download regional packs for the Merlin app. There’s a pack for Britain and Ireland. I got the Iberian Peninsula pack when I was down that way last year, and it was very helpful.