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Feeding ur chumming?

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DoorGunner

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From the middle of October until the middle of March I feed the birds here at the dock. Just about all sparrows because we just don't have many trees or fields for other birds. They go through about fifty pounds of seed every ten days. Only thing keeping their numbers in check is the Hawk that makes about five stops each day. Misses his targets frequently but I've also seen him pick off three at once. Even when he makes a kill the sparrows are right back five minutes later. 

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This guy here is my favorite. He is on one of our rental boats in our parking lot. When he attacks he almost always comes in from the right off a billboard about a hundred yards away. He is perched on the last boat in line right where one of my small gardens begin.

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Last year I was kneeling down next to that boat planting some bulbs totally out of sight. The pot I use for the feeder was full of sparrows and about thirty feet to the left.. As I stood up I took the hawk right in the side of my head and it actually spun me around. He did a cartwheel right into the feeder like a bowling ball and then bounced into the parking lot on his back knocked out. I wasn't sure what the hell had just happened when a worker in a truck behind me got out and yelled to me to see if I was OK. Told me a big bird just slammed into my head. I looked around and found the hawk still on it's back in the parking lot but it's legs were starting to move. Finally he flipped over and started walking away. Tried to fly but only got a few feet then fell to the ground again. Eventually he just walked through the parking lot and out of sight. I checked to see if I was bleeding but I wasn't. Side of my face was a little numb but that was it. Then I noticed this sparrow unconscious near where the hawk had been laying. Figured it was dead but after about fifteen minutes he came to and flew away.

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I figured the same hawk returned after that but it's wing was a little messed up. Now I'm real careful when I stick my head up suddenly when the sparrows are calling to the hawk. 

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Nice pics, Fred.

 

For some reason, at certain times of the year, we have birds slam into our Florida Room windows and sliding glass doors. I'm assuming its the young of the year who don't have
perspective on what these window things are (we do have hangings, shades etc so it's not crystal clear glass anyway)

 

Had a couple go *doink* really hard off the glass and then just lay stunned on the patio, then after a few minutes get up, then again sort of get the "dust out of their head" and then fly off, 15 minutes+ later. One was hanging there a lot longer but eventually did fly away, and a couple don't make it.

 

Then all the birds seem to "get it", and no more *doinks* on the windows for the season... until next year

 

OT: our feeders do attract a lot of birds, and we have a few resident hawks, but apparently the way things are structured here, the birds seem to figure out that hawks are coming as they all take cover before a fly-by. I've not experienced seeing a hawk succeed at any of our feeders (6) around the yard (yet :) )

Edited by robtf

From The Grand State of South Jersey

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I swear the hawk at the dock likes to mess with the sparrows most of the time. He fly's in at about half speed then lands on top of a pole and just watches as the sparrows crap their feathers. When he comes in for a kill it's twice the speed and when there are about two hundred sparrows all around the feeder it's hard for him to miss. He slams in so fast and hard you would think he would get hurt. Seen him pick off one here and there and one day he hit the lottery. Two in one talon and one in the other. One day we were sitting outside when he attacked. the sparrows scattered and he zeroed in on this one that flew straight up then dove into the bed of my truck. The hawk right straight up with the sparrow then slammed into the bed of the truck. We figured he must have broke his neck. A few seconds later the hawk jumped up on the side with the sparrow in it's hooks then flew a short distance away and ripped the little guy apart. Thats why I wonder if I'm feeding the sparrows or chumming for the hawk.     

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51 mins ago, DoorGunner said:

This guy here is my favorite. He is on one of our rental boats in our parking lot. When he attacks he almost always comes in from the right off a billboard about a hundred yards away. He is perched on the last boat in line right where one of my small gardens begin.

077_zpsda43690b.jpg.d533168e5089c4f3fd90338da35ed7aa.jpg

 

Last year I was kneeling down next to that boat planting some bulbs totally out of sight. The pot I use for the feeder was full of sparrows and about thirty feet to the left.. As I stood up I took the hawk right in the side of my head and it actually spun me around. He did a cartwheel right into the feeder like a bowling ball and then bounced into the parking lot on his back knocked out. I wasn't sure what the hell had just happened when a worker in a truck behind me got out and yelled to me to see if I was OK. Told me a big bird just slammed into my head. I looked around and found the hawk still on it's back in the parking lot but it's legs were starting to move. Finally he flipped over and started walking away. Tried to fly but only got a few feet then fell to the ground again. Eventually he just walked through the parking lot and out of sight. I checked to see if I was bleeding but I wasn't. Side of my face was a little numb but that was it. Then I noticed this sparrow unconscious near where the hawk had been laying. Figured it was dead but after about fifteen minutes he came to and flew away.

005_zpsap7cfwfx.jpg.35f53899af0efb45c117e90458e8b439.jpg

I figured the same hawk returned after that but it's wing was a little messed up. Now I'm real careful when I stick my head up suddenly when the sparrows are calling to the hawk. 

006_zps0ab8ef1f.jpg.a051f038d42d6bd21f25c9f4e538535c.jpg

 

 

 

That's a great story!! :laugh:

You know it must be a penguin bound down if you hear that terrible screaming and there ain't no other birds around. 

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2 hours ago, DoorGunner said:

I swear the hawk at the dock likes to mess with the sparrows most of the time. He fly's in at about half speed then lands on top of a pole and just watches as the sparrows crap their feathers. When he comes in for a kill it's twice the speed and when there are about two hundred sparrows all around the feeder it's hard for him to miss. He slams in so fast and hard you would think he would get hurt. Seen him pick off one here and there and one day he hit the lottery. Two in one talon and one in the other. One day we were sitting outside when he attacked. the sparrows scattered and he zeroed in on this one that flew straight up then dove into the bed of my truck. The hawk right straight up with the sparrow then slammed into the bed of the truck. We figured he must have broke his neck. A few seconds later the hawk jumped up on the side with the sparrow in it's hooks then flew a short distance away and ripped the little guy apart. Thats why I wonder if I'm feeding the sparrows or chumming for the hawk.     

definitely sounds like chumming :)

 

We don't have the bunch of sparrows showing up at our feeders... we get the "birds of a feather" gang who all hang together. This includes

chickadees, cardinals, titmouse (titmice plural?), some finches, occasional pine warblers, then the trunk birds: nuthatches and woodpeckers.

These all come in mixed bunches, different combos, and leave together (or duck into the thick evergreens when threatened, which I'm assuming you don't have around the dock!).

 

I remember at my inlaws over on absecon island, the sparrows would be thick at the feeders, though they didn't have any hawks in the area (at that time, anyways)

 

 

From The Grand State of South Jersey

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4 hours ago, richie c said:

My wife has feeders in the back yard and once in a while the RT hawk lands on the stockade fence and just waits, never moving until he picks one out for the kill. Hes only 6' away from us while we watch from the BR. Same bird on my avatard. Get a pic of your hawk in action

Nice Richie, thats a good pic in your avitard. 

The village, which had stood for maybe 1,000 years, didn't know we were coming that day. If they had, they would have run. boB was at the eye of our rage. And through him, our Captain Ahab. He would set things right again. That day, we loved him.

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3 hours ago, MikeMc said:

 

That's a great story!! :laugh:

Yea x2. Thats a geat story gunner. :clap:

The village, which had stood for maybe 1,000 years, didn't know we were coming that day. If they had, they would have run. boB was at the eye of our rage. And through him, our Captain Ahab. He would set things right again. That day, we loved him.

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Yea its funny, seems much cooler knowing he took that pic. 

The village, which had stood for maybe 1,000 years, didn't know we were coming that day. If they had, they would have run. boB was at the eye of our rage. And through him, our Captain Ahab. He would set things right again. That day, we loved him.

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I think me and that hawk are destined to be close friends. A few weeks before that encounter I was outside sitting in my chair at the front corner of our shop. Someone called looking for one of the guys who works at our dock. He usually parks back behind our shop but he comes and goes so I put the phone down to take a look to see if his truck was there. I stuck my head around the corner and it just had to be when the hawk was making his run. Knocked my hat right off my head. Always been lucky getting close to nature but this hawk is taking that to a new level.   

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15 hours ago, Terry Mac said:

Yea its funny, seems much cooler knowing he took that pic. 

I used to be really into photography but gave all my old 35mm stuff to my son, my wife is the shutter bug now and she took that picture. Cameras now take the pics for you with all the setting done automatically.

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  • 4 weeks later...

welp, never caught the action in progress before (and technically didn't get the action now, just the perpetrator)

 

was sitting at my computer when noticed a big swoop out my left eye through the window. heard a thump right below me and then saw a junco swiftly dash across the yard to an
evergreen followed by a bigger bird.  Hawk? I think it's an American Kestrel!

 

 

kestrel-1-4-2018.jpg

From The Grand State of South Jersey

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