Cooper's Hawk!

[MikeyDSlagle]

Yep the females are bigger.

Some "imprint" on humans. And it is believed they think they are actually human. I think those can't be released into the wild because they simply don't know how to do raptor stuff.

 

[Estesbasher]

[video=youtube;UkW7r-rgeBQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkW7r-rgeBQ[/video]

[video=youtube;i6oiX8Np4nQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6oiX8Np4nQ[/video]

[video=youtube;cvH_Qa5svSw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvH_Qa5svSw[/video]

This gives you a Idea of just how good at killing these birds can be, I've seen them do some amazing things back in the day, when I did falconry.
[video=youtube;VklTs-Tid_I]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VklTs-Tid_I[/video]

 

[Estesbasher]

Dang crows! We used to hunt them in the off-season when all the other hunting seasons were closed. Now there is a season on them that runs concurrent with duck and dove, so of course we no longer hunt crows, and the population has exploded. We can still shoot them if they depredate on crops and a few other reasons, but we can't actively hunt them. I've seen them lay in fields for weeks because nothing would eat them, that's what I meant. They are so smart it's annoying and problematic. But why tear off wiper blades? They are getting thick around here and wake me up scratching around on my roof. Then I wake the neighbors with a Benelli. Lol

I would still like to get into falconry but it is a huge commitment, not sure if I have time. It would be wild to hunt with one though.

It's a life style, You live for that bird. It would be one of the biggest commitments of my life. You just don.t go to the store and buy some steak. You'd be setting traps and shooting bird all the time. But you get to witness things most people never get to see. Like watching a falcon hit a pheasant doing a 180-mph. looks as if it just got hit with a 12ga. shoot gun shell. Or watching a redtail grab a jack rabbit doing 40mph and go into a roll on the ground and come up with it in both feet,

 

[Estesbasher]

I found a few videos on youtube you might like watching. The Bird in this first video I've read stories of where falconers have been killed by theses birds. They would use them to hunt deer. the falconer would try taking it away from the bird to soon and have the bird turn on them. The back talon can get up to 6" in length and the span of the foot 11" Theses guys are true masters of falconry. [video=youtube;PaJ_xOY_QD4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PaJ_xOY_QD4[/video]
The top ten birds of prey.
[video=youtube;x-QRFh316fU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-QRFh316fU[/video]
You guys want to know more. I've go it.

 

[RocketT.Coyote]

One Summer in my neighborhood, some crows took to harassing a nesting pair of hawks. The hawks retaliated, and feathers flew--all of them black.

 

[K'Tesh]

I've got two raptor moments to share...

During my first round of rocketry, my great-grandmother on my father's side was still alive, and owned our family's cattle ranch (now owned by actor Patrick Duffy) outside of Eagle Point. I was out in the one of the fields launching rockets near the banks of the Rogue River (Rogue as in loveable rogue, not rouge (red)). This time, the winds were different (or so I thought), and I was confident I wouldn't need to go skinny dipping to recover my rocket again. My first Cherokee-D had survived it's dip in the river and so had I, and now it had dried out enough to try again. Bad Move...

The winds may have been good, but the rocket was flying likely flying on a D11-9 (could have been a D12-7, I forget), and arced over, again, heading for the river. As it descended under parachute, the winds blew it back towards me, and right towards a snag with an osprey's nest in it. The osprey was curious, or just defending it's nest, and came up to investigate. The snag, being what it was, lived up to it's name, and my beloved Cherokee-D ended it's days hanging our under an osprey's nest, until the shock cord finally failed, or the parachute finally came undone. When it was found on the ground some time later, a cow (a mindbogglingly stupid creature that is quite tasty as steak) or several cows, had laid on it, crushing it flat.

After my GG passed away, her youngest son (Gene) demanded that his brother (my grandfather) buy him out of his portion of the inheritance, which he couldn't do. Eventually their fight over the ranch cost it to us, and now as I said, it's owned by Patrick Duffy. Not many in my family (including his children) will talk to Gene.


My 2nd raptor moment was when I was zoobombing (riding my bicycle down from the Zoo, along Hwy 26 in Portland Oregon) to school one day. I once managed to see a large red tailed hawk flying about 20 feet below me in the valley that the highway skirted the edge of. It was flying close to my speed. So, I got some incredible views of the back of the hawk as it was flying alongside me. Had I been prepared for it, I'd have been able to get some really cool nature documentary style video that would have looked like I was following the hawk by air.

 

[ActingLikeAKid]

Raptors have some amazing adaptations. The folks who worked rehab at the wildlife centers where I volunteered said that accipiters (like the cooper's hawk and the goshawk featured here) would sometimes come in with a keel bone (like a bird's sternum) that showed evidence of being broken and healing in the wild, evidence that in the pursuit of something, they smashed into a tree. And kept going. The sight of a bird going full-tilt into heavy brush is utterly amazing.
Clear some room under your jaw for this one.
[video=youtube;2CFckjfP-1E]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CFckjfP-1E[/video]

 

[KenECoyote]

As an amateur bird spotter, I'm blessed. Raptor sightings this year included seeing an eagle swoop down and pull out a big fish from the lake I live on (all viewed from my driveway and back yard).
I also saw a group of 5 red tailed hawks over a field near me soaring along with a glider that was enjoying the thermals (there's a big glider port near that area).

Other bird sightings:
I've spotted Ravens when they're considered highly rare in my area...no one would believe me until I got footage of a pair a year later apparently nesting atop a local Target.
One of the best was a bunch of years ago I saw two large hummingbirds resting next to each other on my neighbor's clothesline.
On my road trip from NY to Boston this past week, I saw 3 Blue Herons on the way up (one came so close while flying across the highway I thought I was going to hit it until it swooped just over my roof) and 2 on the way back. I also have two in my area who often land on my dock. I've also accidentally spooked a pair that were in trees while jogging around my neighborhood (I didn't know they roosted in trees!).

 

[K'Tesh]

Who me?



I was riding home one night from Portland, when I spotted a pair of owls. One stuck around for a while, and I got some pictures... That was the best of them.

 

[Estesbasher]

That one with the Goshawk was :y::y: Now I know why k'tesh likes the cherokee-d Not a bad pic with the low light for the owl. Here's one where a falcon takes out a red tail,

[video=youtube;Hpz66RYD110]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hpz66RYD110[/video]
Here's some of the terms used in falconry.

https://www.themodernapprentice.com/glossary.htm

 

[Estesbasher]

I removed the two other pictures. God's know I sure as hell wouldn't want to insult anyone because of it.

This is the one I like. This is as close as I could get, He was stating to get mad at me,If you look you can se the fish in his feet and where he's rubbed the blood on his leg,

 

[fox_racing_guy]

I have quite few raptors around me. Local Osprey

Bald Eagles in my back yard.

The nest.

 

[dave carver]

In the Desert between Boise and Mountain Home there a fumarole, a small volcano as it were. It's called Christmas Mountain for some reason. It's smack dab in the middle of the Orchard Military Training Range. We were on the dirt road that goes through range on a windy day. There were 4 bald eagles, 3 sitting and one flying, sorta. He had his wings cupped and was like hang gliding on the up-wind side of the hill staying motionless. He veered off and landed and another took his place! One of the most incredible things I've ever seen.

On this same road I also saw 4 burrowing owls, a mother and 3 chicks. The little ones were hopping into the air flapping their wings madly, a funny sight for sure

Now, one more. Where I used to sit in my taxi waiting for a call there was a bald eagle that sat in a tree fishing in the Boise River. For three years we saw him there occasionaly. One day a news van pulled up and started shooting film of him just sitting there. I guess that wasn't enough for them...they pulled out a firecracker and lit it off under him to make him fly. We never saw him after that. I should have called the cops on them for harassing a protected species...bastards...