I Have A Hawk Hanging Around Right At My House

Discussion in 'Science & Nature' started by John Brunner, Jul 8, 2021.

  1. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I thought you were in Baltimore. I take it you're close to the shore. I may have mentioned I've been fossil hunting with the Smithsonian at Calvert Cliffs.

    I just read a little about goshawks. Falconry is fascinating stuff.
     
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  2. Dwight Ward

    Dwight Ward Veteran Member
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    Baltimore - ugh. I'm on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay. The Choptank River is next to the town I grew up in - Cambridge, MD. Dorchester County is home to the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. It takes up over half the county. Muskrat country.
    [​IMG]

    From the westernmost part of Dorchester County, on a clear summer day we can see across the Bay to Calvert Cliffs.
     
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    Last edited: Apr 10, 2022
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  3. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    Hell, boy, you're in a nice part of the country. I don't know why I had you in the urbanized mess.

    We vacationed at Eagles Nest Campgrounds (just past Berlin) every year from 1963 till 1968, and then sporadically thereafter. My dad parked our trailer there for the season. I've pulled a bazallion blue claws out of the Sinepuxent (chicken necks on strings), and walked with the ponies when there was no one else on the island. I've been over the Choptank a bazillion times going back & forth, and attended the Crab Festival in Crisfield back when it was a quaint affair and I was a wee lad.
     
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  4. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    you may have a bumper crop of prey to attract them.
     
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  5. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    That's what I'm hoping, as that speaks well of the entire critter chain. It was just an odd site, since they don't ever flock together in those numbers that I've ever seen. I hope it doesn't mean they're getting bumped from other habitat, but if they were, that casual flock would have been a slaughterhouse of birds defending/attacking territory.
     
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  6. Nancy Hart

    Nancy Hart Veteran Member
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    I saw 4 hawks cruising together in town last week. These looked a little smaller than the usual one, who is always alone.
     
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  7. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    That's interesting. As I said earlier, I never see groups of them except for territorial/mating disputes (and that's always 2 or 3 of them), and very rarely see an obvious mating pair...they are usually solitary critters (although it seems they're always screeching for/at someone.) Conversely, I have a few pairs of pileated woodpeckers on the property, and I often see them in flight together...way more often than I see them flying on their own.

    I just went on the web and looked. Apparently hawks will flock together in large numbers when taking advantage of rising thermals (but again, it's a rare sight here.) A flock of hawks is called a "kettle." (And a flock of owls is called a "parliament.") There is an annual hawk migration where thousands will flock. There are over 200 "hawk watch" sites in North America...the Rockfish Gap site is only 45 miles from me...and a national Hawk Watch association. I'll have to get it on my calendar...I keep meaning to.

    I was hoping to find a vid of them screaming through a gap at high-speed as I've heard they sometimes do while migrating, but neither the local nor the national watch groups have vids on their sites, and I could not find any such video on You Tube. Here's a brief vid of a large migrating kettle. All of these migration vids seem to be the same...impressive numbers endlessly riding the thermals.

     
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  8. Dwight Ward

    Dwight Ward Veteran Member
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    Since the birds are small, I'm wondering if they're immature enough to still be hanging around the parents' nest. They might flock together until they're fully grown. That's just a guess - I'm no bird expert.
     
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  9. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I was just on the local Hawk Watch website. They have supervised, organized counts from Aug 15 through Nov 30. I've marked my calendar. Maybe I can learn this stuff from an expert...the volunteer counters are smart enough to differentiate species:

    Hawk count.jpg
    (from Rockfish Gap Watch website)​

    Of course, accuracy is not verified, so who really knows...
     
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  10. Mary Stetler

    Mary Stetler Veteran Member
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    We had 32 turkeys swoop into the pasture the other day. SWOOP. The next day they were back. one of them was a tom, all puffed up, tail all fanned out but he was not the only male. Maybe three of four broods whose mothers said Get away from me!
     
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  11. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    Raptors migrate here, too. They ride the currents through passes and such. Originally the passes were where wind farms were located and the turbines were chopping up the migrating birds. I think the environmentalist folks have realized their error, though, and I think that has been mostly fixed. I understand the large solar farms in the Southwest have cused bird deaths, too, but that has just been kept out of the media. I don't think that has been fixed.
     
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  12. Marie Mallery

    Marie Mallery Veteran Member
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    They just celebrated the millionth solar panel 1 mile as the crow fly's from us. poor birds! The evil tyrants won't be happy7 till they destroy everything.
     
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  13. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    It supposedly disorients migrating birds with the reflection from the panels. Some apparently get cooked if they get too close to them. I have read this, but I don't know for sure if it is true. The Left has so much invested in solar power anything that shows problems with it is censored.
     
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  14. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    Spring gobblers, baby.

    I have pics of the strutting toms taken through my windows, but they're not very clear pics (auto-focus does funny things when there's glass in between the camera and the intended subject.)

    They are quite majestic, aren't they? I've only seen them in flight once, and that's when a dog went after them as they were eating.
     
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  15. John Brunner

    John Brunner Senior Staff
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    I heard a radio talk show guy mention that Russia is heavily backing America's "Green" groups.

    I doubt that solar panels will fry a critter, but a satellite antenna certainly will if the bird gets between the dish & the transducer.
     
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