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Hawk Attack


twk123

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Earlier this year we have two Coopers Hawks that have come and nest in our giant tree in front of our house. They have not been a problem before and have been fun to watch. We have seen them eat pigeons and starlings and also the incredible bravery of Robins who would follow the hawk for hours and chirp angrily at it to protect the rest of the bird community.

 

However, things have changed in the last few days. Twice now one of the hawks has tried dive bombing me. The first time I saw him swoop around and put my hands up and he swooped off and this morning I didnt see anything coming but my wife yelled, "Watch out!" and I had to duck as it swooped down withing 15ft of me or so.

 

This is becoming a pretty major concern and I dont want my pregnant wife or myself to lose an eye to an angry hawk. I know they are protecting their nest and their young but I am doing the same. We have had a good relationship so far and I would think they would be used to our presence.

 

Anyway, if it was up to me they would be smoked with an air rifle by now but our Feds deemed that a hawk is more important than people and the fines are hefty to say the least and having them removed can be expensive as well.

 

Has anyone had a similar situation as this and what would you do?

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   Your unlikely to get any help from your Conservation agents/animal control.  Anything you do on your own will likely constitute harassment which will carry hefty fines themselves.   LE will probably tell you to live with it and be at hawks mercy.  If that is not acceptable....work alone... use a shovel...tell no one. 

I'm with Zim.  

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Has anyone had a similar situation as this and what would you do?

 

If a hawk dared to attack me or my wife, I don't care what the hawk's "reasons" were, those hawk babies would become fatherless, fast.

 

I would not tell the authorities.  I would follow Zim's advice, directly upstream ^^^.

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I believe game wardens can relocate them as long as they're not nesting.  They'd be the place I'd start if you believe they're becoming a hazard.

 

That is the problem, they are nesting and I dont think they will do anything. A bunch of kids at BYU got attacked a while back and they didnt do anything about it.

 

Its expensive but I think I may want to get one of these (They even painted over the swastikas so it wont get charged with a hate crime when the feds kick my door down after a few rounds):

post-59242-0-87020000-1466704873_thumb.j

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Your unlikely to get any help from your Conservation agents/animal control. Anything you do on your own will likely constitute harassment which will carry hefty fines themselves. LE will probably tell you to live with it and be at hawks mercy. If that is not acceptable....work alone... use a shovel...tell no one.

That is bullshit. Call your conservation agents, animal control and, your local Audubon society and see what their recommendations are.

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If they're nesting, it could explain the aggression.   NO ONE will touch them if they're nesting and if you do, expect heavy fines (IF caught).

 

EDIT, the above is true for song birds and endangered birds.  Check with game wardens on Hawks.

Edited by CECAA850
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It's pretty clear they are nesting.  It's pretty standard the hawks will continue to aggressively guard the babies until they are grown enough to fly the coup, which is about 8 weeks.

 

It did occur to me there is a common solution many farmers in my area use to guard against chicken hawks.  You can buy a statue of an owl and move it around every couple of days so the hawk doesn't get used to it.

 

http://www.lowes.com/pd/Bird-X-6-in-H-23-in-L-Bird-Repelling-Owl-Statue/3751431

706069145217.jpg

Edited by wvu80
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Your unlikely to get any help from your Conservation agents/animal control. Anything you do on your own will likely constitute harassment which will carry hefty fines themselves. LE will probably tell you to live with it and be at hawks mercy. If that is not acceptable....work alone... use a shovel...tell no one.

That is bullshit. Call your conservation agents, animal control and, your local Audubon society and see what their recommendations are.

Not so sure that is bulllshit Jimbo. I presume these hawks are a protected species? While my recent experience with a mother racoon and babies that picked my basement window well as safe quarters aren't protected my calls to LE, animal control and a wild animal relocation service proved fruitless. I received suggestions only, zero help. Because the well sat under an extension of the house it was impossible to gain access and they could only be viewed from the basement window itself. After a few rounds of the mother standing on her hind legs and chewing/ scratching the subfloor I had seen enough early damage done. Lets just say this, raccoons do not like automotive exhaust and ammonia soaked rags. Well is now secured.

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Your unlikely to get any help from your Conservation agents/animal control. Anything you do on your own will likely constitute harassment which will carry hefty fines themselves. LE will probably tell you to live with it and be at hawks mercy. If that is not acceptable....work alone... use a shovel...tell no one.

That is bullshit. Call your conservation agents, animal control and, your local Audubon society and see what their recommendations are.

Not so sure that is bulllshit Jimbo. I presume these hawks are a protected species? While my recent experience with a mother racoon and babies that picked my basement window well as safe quarters aren't protected my calls to LE, animal control and a wild animal relocation service proved fruitless. I received suggestions only, zero help. Because the well sat under an extension of the house it was impossible to gain access and they could only be viewed from the basement window itself. After a few rounds of the mother standing on her hind legs and chewing/ scratching the subfloor I had seen enough early damage done. Lets just say this, raccoons do not like automotive exhaust and ammonia soaked rags. Well is now secured.

 

 

Hawks are federally protected under the Migratory Birds Act or whatever the law is called. I am almost 100% sure animal control would just tell me to deal with it. If they would no do anything to protect college students at our most prized University they surely wont care about my property.

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Raccoons are a very common nuisance, on the order of squirrels and chipmunks, while Hawks are not particularly threatening unless of course, they are nesting, which is apparently the case. I can understand why your local authorities didn't really think it was worth it to mess with the raccoons but, a raptor family would be another case altogether…

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