When I woke up this morning my wife told me the hawk was back about sunrise. She had gone outside and chased him away. She said he was on the house with his head in one of the holes. This was about 6AM. I looked out (it was now 6:30) and he was back with his head in there again! I ran outside and chased him away again. He must not have gotten any PMs because if he had he would not have still been there. I had to go to work but I went back home to see if the birds were there. This was about 8:30 and they were still there. I do not know how much of this they will take before they go elsewhere. I thought about shooting a penny rocket at him to try and make him leave for good. Y'all do not get upset, it will not hurt him. It may however make my PMs leave as well. I do not know what to do. I believe the PMs in the 8 gourds that I have are safer than the ones in the houses. The gourds are filling up first. Has anyone else had this much trouble with such a persistant hawk? Should I just let nature take its course?
Thanks for any advice.
Tigerpitt
Cooper's Hawk Back Again!
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Louise Chambers
- Site Admin
- Posts: 6208
- Joined: Tue Nov 04, 2003 1:07 pm
- Location: Corpus Christi, TX
Tigerpitt,
You can add owl/hawk guards to the gourds and the houses. This will keep the hawk a bit further away and make it harder for it to reach martins when they are tucked away inside the housing.
There are links to some articles about owl guards in the Archives section and in the post near top of main forum page titled, Resources for the season.
A SC landlord added guards to her gourd rack and it stopped the redtailed hawk that had been raiding the gourds (it's unusual for a redtail to bother martins, I should add), and other landlords have reported guards on the houses also helped. Deeper compartments also help. Nest trays with baffles keep martins safer, as do predator 'blocks' placed on porches in front of entrance holes. Please consider implementing one or more of these ideas; there are no 100% guarantees as to which will work best but they are not hard to do and will help. Good luck -
Louise
You can add owl/hawk guards to the gourds and the houses. This will keep the hawk a bit further away and make it harder for it to reach martins when they are tucked away inside the housing.
There are links to some articles about owl guards in the Archives section and in the post near top of main forum page titled, Resources for the season.
A SC landlord added guards to her gourd rack and it stopped the redtailed hawk that had been raiding the gourds (it's unusual for a redtail to bother martins, I should add), and other landlords have reported guards on the houses also helped. Deeper compartments also help. Nest trays with baffles keep martins safer, as do predator 'blocks' placed on porches in front of entrance holes. Please consider implementing one or more of these ideas; there are no 100% guarantees as to which will work best but they are not hard to do and will help. Good luck -
Louise