Hawk Attacks are through the roof

[Thomabear]

My colony is literally being destroyed by numerous hawks. The hawks are now accustomed to the fact that I'm not a threat and no longer acknowledge the air horn and decoy. They simply adjusted to my attempts... My martins also adjusted by not sitting around too long on the porches and now the hawks have resorted to owl tactics. Just a couple hours ago I witnessed a coopers hawk flap the side of my house and flush out another easy breakfast. My colony has become a feast and its almost as if the hawks are spreading the word. My birds haven't returned since this latest attack and I now think about the possibility of losing the entire colony. What's frustrating is we now have an over abundance of protected birds making meals of declining birds and no one in key positions have the initiative to touch anything other than their paycheck. Our tax dollars in action...
I put a lot of $, time and effort into establishing my colony but at this point I'm consumed and wondering if I'm contributing to the demise of martins by having them on display for the hawks to further evolve into martin killing machines.

[Birdiegirl]

Gosh Thomabear, I'm so sorry this is happening to you and your colony. I'm just starting out as a landlord, so I haven't dealt with this and don't want to. I know others on this forum have battled hawks- and I seem to recall that some landlords have had luck using a scarecrow along with an airhorn? Hopefully someone on here can give you some other tactics to try. I'm pulling for you and sure hope that hawk moves on or finds something else to hunt.

[C.C.Martins]

Man, I saw this earlier and tried to come up with a final solution for you but I'm at a loss. Sounds like you have the right tools and techniques, but not working. Brent is getting whacked too.
We've a few around, made 4 passes that iv seen, no telling what I have not seen. Whippy was very sucessful against hawk attacks.
Be out there as much as you can, make your presence known. Especially when they are leaving or coming in for the night.
Dont know how much help that is but gotta try to save them. Yesterday a hawk flew right to left down the sidewalk, about 2 feet off the ground across the street. Went between two parked cars and was on the gourd rack before I could even think, to try for my neighbors martins. Was not sucessful, they saw it coming, so being out there helps?
I don't know ....right place at the right time. Have to try to save them though.
Tom

[deancamp]

I agree it's not right to not be given a means to protect your colony but I don't have any additional ideas that you haven't tried that are legal. Good Luck!

[Jones4381]

Thomabear,
Man, sorry to hear of your plight, I really do. The emotions came right through the pages (well internet..through the bytes). Hopefully your adaptive martins can survive these merciless attacks by the hawks. Remember the Hawks are just being hawks and the Martins are just being Martins. In the end, Man has to decide to watch and abide or intervene and interrupt what nature intends. I wish you the best...I truly do and hope you decide on what you believe is right for all that you are dealing with and the story unfolding.... We are Sapiens and have that ability to intervene and make a decision...nature does not (that's why we love it...as it does exactly what it does with precision every time.). Good Luck sir and wishing you peace and all the birds a chance and hopefully this will turn out good for all. Rod

[Whippy]

Thomabear,

I posted in Brent's Hawk Attack thread. I got a little bit of heat for it but no Hawks were hurt and I haven't seen one since Easter Weekend a year ago. Have a look at that thread and feel free to email from here for more details if you so desire.

One thing I do know is Hawks do not like loud noises. If I see hawks again I am going to do this in addition to what I've already done:

If you can set up a device that will set off fireworks at the press of a button it'll work. Think of an old Estes rocket launching platform. You have a battery with wires leading to a single strand from picture frame wire. At the press of a button the battery heats up the wire and it ignites the estes rocket. Instead of using a rocket motor, stick the wire strand inside a black cat fire cracker. If you can pull this off be sure to set it off when you are outside and visible to the Hawk. When they associate danger to you, your mannequin will begin to work. It'll take repetition to get them all afraid of you but it'll be worth it. Once they are afraid they'll respect the mannequin and when they respect the mannequin you can rest a little easier.

If you're in an area that you can fire a weapon, set up a back stop in several places around the colony and fire at that when you see a hawk. For best results the barrel of said device should be pointing in the direction of the hawk.

A this point you should be able to walk right up to them when they are in a tree. Thats when you can scare the hell out of them. That's what I did with the male of the pair that was tormenting my colony. He never came back. At that point, the female was so afraid of me and the mannequin that, with the loss of her mate, and the constant harassment of my mannequin, I think she just moved on. I think what really got to her was that I fired a pellet pistol in her direction every time I saw her. If she was in a distant tree I lobbed a BB at her. If she was in a close tree I shot the branch she was sitting on. It got to a point that if she saw me walk past my windows she would high tail it out of the area.

Anyway. There's a way to keep them away without killing them. You just gotta be tenacious. I almost took my gourds down last year. I fought threw it and ended up with 29 pairs.

Good luck to you.

[Thomabear]

Thanks y’all for the comments and great ideas. I’ll definitely keep up with the deterrents. I think Brent mentioned a while back the possibility of the Martins being sitting ducks due to the shortage of other prey from the hurricane. At least I think it was Brent… Either way I feel this is a factor as to the number of attacks I’m seeing compared to previous years. My colony is growing but it’s rather small at the moment with about 30 birds. I can’t watch my colony 24/7 but I’m catching several attacks on my security camera almost daily for the last week or so. I’ve been sitting out nearly every morning and evening and the attacks are happening in the blink of an eye. I’ve never seen so many Hawks as I’m seeing now. It’s definitely becoming an overwhelming job to keep them somewhat safe. The air horn blast this morning didn’t drive away the hawk until he had a Martin in hand. I lost 4 that I know of so far and the hawks seem to have not slowed down. Poor birds!

[brent]

Thomabear, I feel your pain. I read your post earlier today and decided to wait to respond. Glad I did because the responses you’ve received are all tried and true and confirms that our battles are the same. It’s a daily battle. I know because I’m out there everyday. Lately it’s been the Sharp Shinned. I think I scared the Cooper’s enough…we’re both exhausted. That Sharp Shinned is relentless though. He’s the one that, just a few days ago, ignored me and my horn and snatched a female right off the porch right in front of me. Yes, it was hard especially hearing her cry. But, that will not deter me. Last year, early in the season, I had similar problems and thought I would lose the colony especially after the brutal cold. I was ready to give up. With the encouragement of fellow landlords I stuck with it and ended up with over 80 fledglings. Remarkable. Just recently, I used my Daisey sling shot to scare a Sharp Shinned from a distant pecan tree. It took 4 or 5 attempts but it flew. I know these hawks are migrating and are hungry. If we can hold them off as much as possible (it takes perseverance) we’ll make it through. I use decoys (they have helped), scarecrow (scares some but not others), marine air horn (usually bothers the hawk but definitely the neighbors), and now my sling shot (just enough to rattle the branches and make the hawk move on). Tomorrow is another day and I don’t know what to expect. Hang in there. All of us are with you. Brent

[C.C.Martins]

Thomabear,
Really feel for you and the martins; Id be devastated and resolve to fix it. Time to incorporate some of whips ideas my friend? He did catch some flack but I for one 100% approve. Theres a deep attachment to "our birds" and we go to great lengths to help them out.
Tom

[sugarcreek]

No way i let hawks destroy a martin colony

[SueK]

Thomabear
'Though I've not had this experience as of yet, I think I've read it's advantageous to cultivate a crow presence by ground feeding them at your colony site. They in turn will collectively gang up on and chase the hawks off.
What do you think?

[CTMartins]

Dancing scarecrow perhaps?

[SueK]

[Thomabear]

Thanks everyone for the additional ideas. I’m not ruling out trying anything at this point. I was able to scare a hawk off this morning that landed beneath the houses. No casualties in this round but the battle presses on. I’m currently thinking of installing a perching pole with an adjustable trigger that will provide an intense noise and visual scare. Like a rat trap or make shift jack in the box so to speak. If they release a stream of liquid on take off I would think there’s a good chance they will take up residence elsewhere.

[Thomas Maddox]

I'm with Whippy! Don't kill them, just make them think that they are about to be. Interesting on the crows. How does one attract them?

[Thomabear]

Whole kernel corn will attract crows. We have a cabin against the Homochitto National Forest in MS and the crows will vacuum up corn my wife feeds to other animals (or should I say pets < eye roll). Not sure if they prefer anything else but they will definitely go after the corn scattered on the ground. I’ve already picked up a sack to give Sue’s idea a try. I would stay away from cracked corn to prevent sparrows.

[Whippy]

If you want crows, put out bowls of dog food.

We are covered up in crows. They'll come on the back porch and eat the dog food every day. I'm glad to have them around as they always harass any raptor they see. There are more crows this year around here than ever before.

We also have a pair of Yellow Crested Night Herons that nested near my colony last year. I think they helped with the hawks as well. Never messed with the Martins at all. I saw one of them already this year so maybe they'll be back.

Keep pressing those hawks from all angles. They'll eventually get tired of the harassment and move one.

Coolwhips

[John Evans]

A migrating Merlin just got one of our males. I think we've lost at least one more so far. This really stinks cause females are on eggs. Hoping they move on. soon. Haven't seen much of the coopers lately. UGH!

John

[birdman in buckhead]

Being in Georgia, I can't think a hurricane effected an increase in hawk population like folks in Louisiana (my home state). But I will say there are more hawks now than in any year since 2018 when I started my colony. Cooper's would show up when hatchlings started to fledge, not as soon as the adult martins arrived like this year. And like an earlier post from me, I've never had redtails snooping around at all. I can only think the problem will get worse once the colony is fully occupied and mating, egg laying, etc. begins. So I'm going to find the airhorn, put out the scarecrow. and do all I can NOW to try to convince the hawks this is not to place for an easy meal!

[Martintown33]

Very sorry to hear this thomabear. Terrible.. I know you’ve been offered lots of solutions. I like whippys method.. This may seem a little out there, but I made a bottle rocket gun out of a piece of pipe and welded on a sight to the front of the pipe. I bought a bunch of bottle rockets on New Years. Whenever I see a hawk circling overhead, I fire off a bottle rocket. It’s easy to aim with the bottle rocket rifle.. It doesn’t hit them, but zips on by and scares the crap out of them.. they fly off.. downside is, of course, you have to see them before they attack..
Rob