I need to deter a Red Tailed Hawk from invading my yard!
I have 15-20 Eastern BlueBird & Tree Swallow birdhouses around my yard and yesterday I looked out the South window and the hawk was perched on top of one of the birdhouses!
I know what I could do, AND I DON'T WANT TO, and besides it is ILLEGAL!
Red tailed hawks have to make a living too.;D I had a couple circling while I had our small dog out for a walk, I didn't know if they would attack but I also didn't want to find out. Not really much you can do, any deterrents will scare the other birds.
There's permits you can file for but only if they're harassing livestock/poultry you're trying to farm. I think I read that it's even illegal to harass these "migratory protected" birds. You might be out of luck if you need to stay on the up and up.
I wonder if they are afraid of Bald Eagles? I guess a fake eagle would scare away all of the other birds, too.
That might work, Den!
Just get a bigger bird of prey, albeit fake! 8)
I have the same problem. I just go out there and talk loud to myself. ;D I've had the hawks on top of the houses here too.
Ray, I've found that as we get older, it's easier to hold a conversation with ourselves and virtually go unnoticed by other family members! ;D
Just sayin'! ;)
Chuck,
I am sure the blue birds prefer other neighbors but I am sure the hawks are a much bigger threat to mice, rabbits and squirrels than they are to mall songbirds. Tell them they are welcome here at my place. We had a nest 2 hollers over for years and I loved watching the parents teach them to hunt.
I doubt a hawk is scared of an eagle other than afraid he will steal his kill. i watched a bald eagle crash into an osprey on the river right in front of me making the osprey drop his fish which the eagle then picked up out of the lake and flew away with it. The osprey followed but I doubt he made any other attempt to take it back.
The bluebirds will not nest because of the hawk on top of thier home. Or that's the way I see it.
Red tails are quite the hunters. We see them a an ambush predator but far from true. They are big birds and there is not much a big females does not see as food. If they can catch it they will eat it. 10 years ago it was still legal to catch wild birds in Georgia with a permit. My buddy did and we hunted with her for quite some time. She would spend a half hour chasing a squirrel up and down a tree and the only that would stop her was if he went in a hole in the ground. She would chase them on foot and under logs in thick cover. She would catch anything from snakes to the neighbors dog ( barely saved that one they don't let go easily and they ain't happy when they do). All that being said all I can say is make it an unpleasant place. Make lots of noise and harass them every time you see them. They will find another place eventually
Buck
There are pictures of Red Hawks sitting on Owl decoys, not much to deter them except another food source.
Well, If you feed the small birds and have food out there, The big birds will come to eat too.
Wont be long a bear will show up. God set it up that way.
Where there's food you have game.
Well, the hawk has been back! >:(
Scared it off yesterday by firing a couple of 22LR's into the ditch below it and to the right! ;)
We'll see if it comes back! ::)
Quote from: Chuck White on April 09, 2017, 08:02:05 AM
Well, the hawk has been back! >:(
Scared it off yesterday by firing a couple of 22LR's into the ditch below it and to the right! ;)
We'll see if it comes back! ::)
SSS :) :)
*fingers in my ears* LA LA LA LA LA!!! CAN'T HEAR YOU!!! ;) ;D
I just told Brenda,some guy is having the same problem with a hawk as we do. Than she told me she saw a pair of blue birds yesterday. The first ones.
After I talk loud to myself a few times around the bluebird houses,the hawks don't come back.
bucknwfl,is onto something. Make it unpleasant for them. Maybe talking loud to myself does help. ;)
Any way to put something on top of the bird houses to keep the hawk from roosting there? I sprayed WD40 on top of a 15 gallon drum I used for deer feeder to keep squirrels off. I nearly fell out of my stand laughing next morning when I a big bob tailed fox squirrel jumped on it and scrambled and fell 15' or so.
Last year at my favorite shooting house I was watching a fox squirrel and heard feathers hitting limbs and thought turkeys were landing then saw a big hawk chase the squirrel around the tree a couple of times then the squirrel darted free - I thought. Then I saw the hawk had him by the tail and pulled him back in and jumped on top of him. Then the hawk looked up and saw me and flew off leaving the squirrel. It lay there several seconds, got up and jumped on a limb, rested a couple minutes then hopped off the other direction.
I never thought of hawks being much of a threat to songbirds and more often than not have seen smaller birds like bluejays and mockingbirds chasing hawks and owls. I saw a bunch of crows after an eagle on the river a couple years ago. I have seen flocks of 200-300 crows after a hawk. I don't know if the hawk survived that or not.
Ray, that must have been quite a conversation. :D The hawks are busy here, the pasture below the house is covered in mounds so they have lots of food available. I may have to get a pellet pistol if they get too aggressive.
sawguy21,most times it's a quick one. The hawks fly off. ;D
I have seen the hawks work my field like a grid. Maybe 8-10 feet off the ground? It's hard to tell,I can never get close enough to really tell. I don't talk to myself when they are working the field. I don't mind them eating the mice,snakes. Only when they are on top of a bluebird house. ;D