Hawks and Consequences????????

[Guest]

I really have a problem with the hawks in my area.It seems the population has greatly increased over the last 3 to 5 years.It is not just the immediate area but all around the area of Houston where I may be driving.I see them everywhere in untold numbers by comparison.

I'm sure the presense of Purple Martins and their chatter has made this
problem more profound in the immediate area and in my mind as I am constantly on the look out for them and of course am sighting more than I would like.They are seen perching on neighboring houses,chimneys,trees,fences and gourd racks to name a few and are constantly seen as they patrol the general area.

The birds have taken to leaving the colony area early in the morning and not returning until just before dark and go directly into the cavities,I see some birds circling during the day but they do not land just a couple of flybys then they are gone.

The question is how long will this activity be tolerated by the PM's before they abandon the site? It is getting close to the time when they get serious about nest building,,,,,,,,,,they have to be concerned over their plight and I am too.

dick

[db]

I'm seeing the exact behavior you described at my sight. I had a failed hawk atack just before dark yesterday and had one of my asy males caught out of the air a couple of weeks back. I plan to add more decoys this weekend.

[Guest]

I have had a lull in the hawk sightings and felt relieved that they fianally moved on in their migration but one of two more always seem to move in
after a couple of days.

dick

[Spiderman]

It is the same in our area. Some days we have 3 attacks per day. Unfortunately, some of the Coopers hawks here will be permanent residents. I was looking at some of the decoys the other day and the scratches were unbelievable.

I'm not sure how nest building will go but I don't think they will abandon a site because of hawk attacks.

I've noticed the Kingbirds have started to appear in the last 2 days and they help with the attacks. They sound the alarm and then attack the hawks. Talk about fearless.

Good Luck with your Martins

[Guest]

I've stated this in the past but has anyone tried playing crow calls to dissuade hawk attacks?

[Guest]

What is expected in that tactic,are crows and hawks enemies?

dick

[parkerdes]

I had been seeing a hawk fly through my yard the last couple of weeks & am concerned as well. The good news is if crows indeed are good to have around & chase off hawks...I have about a half dozen that come through my yard daily!
I had 2 ASY males visiting since yesterday & this morning saw my ASY + the 2 males chasing after the hawk that has been hanging around!!! They were very aggressive after it!!!

[Gary W]

Hi Dick,

Crows and hawks are enemies! More than once from my yard, I have seen a Cooper's hawk flying over the house with prey in its talons, and a Crow or two in hot pursuit. I bought a couple of Crow decoys, and I plan to hang them in trees on the perimeter of my property. I don't think a Cooper's hawk will readily launch an attack, if it thinks live Crows are nearby. I believe they have a propensity to steal a hawk's prey, in addition to harassing them. There is bad blood between those two species!

Now Martins are not exactly in love with Crows either. PM's will dive bomb them, if they get too close to the housing. Also, I saw a Crow pursuing a Martin fledgling in the air last year. I think the youngster out flew the Crow.

Gary

[Tim Mangan-Kansas]

I bet I have between 25 to 50 crows in our neighborhood. On occassion I have seen the crows harass my resident Coopers while in flight but I have not seen any reduction in hawk attacks due to the presence of the crows.

Tim

[Emil Pampell-Tx]

I agree that crows and hawks are not compatible. About the crows chasing off a hawk, I heard a loud commotion of a bunch of crows, they were really loud and fussing. I walked down to see what was happening with the crows. I got about 75 ft from them, and there were 2 redshouldered hawks, one hawk was attacking a crows nest, the other was guarding its backside. The crows tried to chase away the hawks but were afraid because they did not want to actually touch the hawks. The hawk guarding would raise its wings slightly, and the crows would back off. Finally one of the hawks went to the crows nest and grabbed a baby crow and the 2 hawks flew away, one flew with the baby crow, the hawks stopped to eat it, and the crows quit making the noise and left.

After seeing that, I can understand why the crows don't like the hawks, the crows try to divert the hawk away from the crows nest. But the hawks don't seem to be afraid of a crow. In fact, they may enjoy eating them.

[John Miller]

Dick

What kind of hawks are you talking about? Please be specific.

Larger hawks such as red tails seem to me to be much more common in the urban St. Louis area and maybe in your area; but generally they don't pose a threat to martins, although I know there are occasional reports of predation. I like seeing these larger hawks around because they may help keep the population of Cooper's Hawks at bay. I don't believe the two will nest nearby.

Regarding martins disappearing during the day... This is common during early spring in areas where nights and mornings are cool. Martins take off late morning and may stay out to last light to take advantage of warmer temperatures and better feeding conditions. Sometimes the very best feeding is last light of the day when winds get more calm, and the martins may stay out nearly until after dark in these conditions.

John M

[parkerdes]

I saw the "hawk" fly through my yard again but not sure if it is a hawk! It didn't have any striping to its feathers...mostly gray. Wonder if I'm seeing an osprey or merlin or some other migrant raptor???

[teridickinson]

I saw the "hawk" fly through my yard again but not sure if it is a hawk! It didn't have any striping to its feathers...mostly gray. Wonder if I'm seeing an osprey or merlin or some other migrant raptor???

Depends on a lot on which side of it you see. If it's an adult Coopers, which is what I'm plagued with here on the NE side of the metroplex the back side is grayish/bluish/blackish and pretty solid colored. You can find lots of photos of them if you Google.

The first time I ever saw in our yard landed on a brush pile where the native sparrows winter. My husband saw it land and from the back, thought it was a crow. I saw it take off and from all the reddish barring underneath thought is was somekind of pheasant-like creature. After researching it, we figured out what it was.

Moral of the story is, the underside and topside look very different.

[Spiderman]

In addition, a Cooper's is usually about the size of a crow.

[Guest]

I have had both Coopers and Sharpies.

I haven't seen one in the last couple of days now and the PM'smseemmto know as they are hanging around most all day.

dick