Red Tailed Hawk

[perry]

I was sitting on my deck enjoying the cool weather when I saw a little bunny come screaming across the yard like a bat outta hell making a line for his hole that leads under the deck. Not entirely strange as they do like to play in my yard. A few seconds later, a hawk landed on the lowest tree branch of the back neighbor's about 25 - 30 yards away. He sat there for a few minutes surveying the scene, and then flew over closer to me and landed on my fence to my left. He was about 10 yards away for what must have been 10 minutes. Then the bunny scampered out towards the edge of the deck where I couldn't see him, and a minute or two later the hawk flew down to where I had last seen him (there's another hole there). Then the hawk jumps in the deck railing maybe 7 yards from me and staring dead at me. I stand up and say "Go away!" and he flies over to the other side of the yard and lands on the fence. He takes a dump, and a minute later flies off between the houses to my right.

The neighbors over and back have a couple of Scottish terriers that were running in their fenced yard and I was hoping the hawk wouldn't get big eyes and go after one of them. The hawk looked well fed, so that probably didn't stay in his mind too long.

As I was typing the bunny came hopping around the front of the deck and headed between the houses to the left. I guess he felt the coast was clear. To give meaning to the saying "The best camera in the world is the one you have," here is a slightly zoomed iPhone pic of the hawk on the fence.

I thought it was a pretty cool 20 minutes

 

[shooter521]

Cool story, but not a Red-Tailed Hawk.

 

[perry]

What kind is it? He sure looked like the pictures on this page: Red-tailed Hawk, Identification, All About Birds - Cornell Lab of Ornithology

His chest had those brownish speckles. But I don't know the first thing about birds... there's tiny ones, medium ones, big ones, and really big ones. And some are eagles. And some are ostriches. And some are herons.

 

[Bunnykid68]

Looks like the red shoulder hawk on the link you just posted

 

[perry]

I saw too scared to take his picture when he was perched on the deck facing me. Those claws looked mean!

 

[SEIndSAM]

Hmmmmm, think one of those would eat a Chihuahua??? Where do you live again???

 

[perry]

Hmmmmm, think one of those would eat a Chihuahua??? Where do you live again???

Not until he eats the half dozen or so rabbits in the yard!

 

[perry]

Looks like the red shoulder hawk on the link you just posted

Looking more, he looks sorta like the pictures of the immature Cooper's hawk. The longer striped tail

 

[Bunnykid68]

Looks like some kind of hawk to me

 

[perry]

Yea.. having him stare dead at me from so close got my heart thumping a little quicker

 

[shooter521]

Looking more, he looks sorta like the pictures of the immature Cooper's hawk. The longer striped tail

Yep! On an immature Red-Tailed Hawk, the tail would be more finely barred, rather than having a few broad stripes as shown in your photo. A RTH would also be much larger, relative to the fenceposts.

 

[GodFearinGunTotin]

Yea.. having him stare dead at me from so close got my heart thumping a little quicker

He may have been sizing you up...

 

[24Carat]

For comparison:

View attachment 20175

 

[Cemetery-man]

Very cool that you got that close-up view of the hawk. We get many hawks at work throughout the day (lots of gophers to eat). They are truly amazing to watch when they are hunting and have learned that our mowers scare-up the gophers and send them running making them easy targets.

 

[perry]

Looks like I have a pair of them. Two of em are over on the neighbor's privacy fence off to my left, about 30 yards away, squeeking and calling back and forth to each other. Maybe the bunny problem will go away? And now, after typing a sentence, they're gone.

Wonder how long they'll stick around? I'll have to keep the regular camera close by.

 

[24Carat]

Looks like I have a pair of them. Two of em are over on the neighbor's privacy fence off to my left, about 30 yards away, squeeking and calling back and forth to each other. Maybe the bunny problem will go away? And now, after typing a sentence, they're gone.

Wonder how long they'll stick around? I'll have to keep the regular camera close by.

The one in my picture was up their every morning for over four years. They stick around if the hunting is good.

 

[mdmayo]

Looks like an adult Coopers to me... lived at the BSU Field Station for a few years, had a nesting pair there. You seeing the second bird makes sense... of course, junior jumping around the yard like a prairie chicken also makes sense, although that bird on your fence is no juvenile Coopers (nor is it a Red Tail of any description).

Did you happen to see its legs? Did it look like it was wearing "pants" or were the legs bare? From behind it's about the right size and markings very similar to a Sharpshin.

 

[perry]

Did you happen to see its legs? Did it look like it was wearing "pants" or were the legs bare? From behind it's about the right size and markings very similar to a Sharpshin.

It looked like he had knickerbockers on. Sorta bald around the bottom of his legs, then rather fluffy looking feathers. The legs looked different than Google Images of the Sharpshin Hawk.

Like I say, I don't know much about birds. I do think the birds of prey are sorta cool. I check out the Falcon Cam that the Indy Star has each year, for the past few years anyways, to see the peregrine falcons nesting over Monument Circle.

 

[BE Mike]

The other day, while walking the dog, I saw a Cooper's Hawk chasing a flock of birds. They like to eat birds and it is fun to watch their low-level "dog fighting" as they fly between houses.

 

[daddyusmaximus]

I haven't seen any kind of hawk all summer. That would be so cool to see one in you own yard. I love birds of prey, they're cool. If I had one around my place... I'd try to feed it with hot dogs or something. Got two dogs who love to chase the squirrels and rabbits. I still get a good nature show every now and then.