BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!

Subject: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 22 Nov 05 - 01:04 PM

And good for him says I! If ever there was a Mockingbird in need of being eaten, it was him.

Here's the story. It's a little bit gory. A little bit happy, a little bit sa..a..a..d......

Southern California - 7AM in the morning.

I heard a bit of a tussle going on outside and went to look. What do I see but a very large Red-Shouldered Hawk with a distinctive yellow beak ripping the local Mockingbird to shreds on our roof! EEK. It was still alive too. Well, serves him right.

That nasty mockingbird was one of those bachelors who spends all spring and half the summer singing like a drunken sailor from Sundown to Sunup. He lived in my Pyracanthus tree on the side of the cottage. In the Spring he'd move to the Magnolia out front and sing all night long at the top of his little lungs. The only way to make him stop was threaten him with the hose and/or throw rocks at him. I had him trained to move halfway down the block and keep those other people awake.

He's Hawk food now. I bet he knows how prometheus felt.

Funny thing, the Hawk had an accomplice - a big ugly Crow who kept circling the kill and snatching little bits. After a while, the Hawk grabbed the still-kicking Mockingbird and carried him off to eat in private. He took him to an old abandoned cottage on the street behind our house. He apparently has taken up residents in the Attic there. The Crow stayed to eat up what was left. Isn't nature grand?

I managed to get some photos but on film, not digital. We'll have them converted. In the meantime, click to this photo of what the culprit looked like.


First Photo on the right

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: Sorcha
Date: 22 Nov 05 - 01:10 PM

Next it will be magpies!

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: GUEST
Date: 22 Nov 05 - 01:35 PM

A friend of mine who lives down in Dipper Harbour N.B. had his cat eaten by an eagle.

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: number 6
Date: 22 Nov 05 - 01:36 PM

That was me Number 6 ... N.B. is New Brusnwick BTW.

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: Peace
Date: 22 Nov 05 - 01:49 PM

Eagles gotta eat, too.

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: TheBigPinkLad
Date: 22 Nov 05 - 01:50 PM

A Cooper's hawk regularly knocks off purple finches from my neighbour's bird feeder and eats them on the fence outside the window. It's a disgusting sight. The kids love it.

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: EBarnacle
Date: 22 Nov 05 - 01:56 PM

Doin' a-whut comes nacherly

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 22 Nov 05 - 01:57 PM

Actually, I was very relieved to find all the cats accounted for! That Hawk was BIG.

I have a small, young male cat who has taken up residence UNDER my house and I always worry about him getting eaten by coyotes. Now I need to add that hawk to my list.

Inky, the cat under the house, got locked out of his real home as a kitten and wandered the neighborhood kissing up to various families until he fixed on us. I think he stays by us because we let him come in for a cuddle now and then when it's cold or wet out. He's a dear little cat - all black except for a tiny tuft of white on his belly. He even has black whiskers and black paw pads. I fancy him and he takes advanatge of that, always asking me to open a can for him or put down some of the meat filled crunchy food.

I suppose he's safe for the day since that hawk should still be eating. He can always run under the house.

Do hawks eat small cats?

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: gnu
Date: 22 Nov 05 - 02:18 PM

Yup. But it's gotta be a pretty big hawk. Eagles, fer sure.

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: Kaleea
Date: 22 Nov 05 - 02:32 PM

When playing my Celtic Harp at a Ren Fest recently, I got to chat with some folks who ran a small bird sanctuary & were doing Falconry exhibitions. They said that birds of prey (like raptors, owls, eagles, hawks) will eat most any live thing that they can get their talons on, and Hawks delight in snacking on our pets. They also said that if we lost our birds of prey, our planet would be completely overrun with vermin in less than a month. Sort of makes us think that maybe all those birds who lose their homes, due to we humans taking away their neighborhoods, are more important than "we" think, huh?

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: number 6
Date: 22 Nov 05 - 02:39 PM

"Eagles gotta eat, too."

I agree ... his fault for letting the cat out with eagles living throughout the area.

I was talking to a coast guard chopper guy who told me a story about noticing some multi coloured objects while flying over an eagle's nest down the coast ... curious they took a closer look and found out it was bunch of cat collars.

sIx

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: gnu
Date: 22 Nov 05 - 02:52 PM

Yup... collars, paws and skulls... all over the roof of a building I did in Port-aux-Basques, NF. Little dogs included. Keep your pets on a colourful leash... the eagles soon learn they are not good targets.

Raptors do not possess the ability to bleed the throat or to snap the neck of prey (except small prey like mice, which they snap the heads off quickly). Thus, most prey are eaten alive. Gross? Yes. But, tasty and life sustaining for the raptor.

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Nov 05 - 04:58 PM

Don't blame me. I had nothing to do with it.

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Nov 05 - 05:41 PM

Good reason to have bigger dogs, to avoid their being carried off by hawks. I see owls in the willow snag over the creek behind my house regularly swoop down on something in the brush below. Most likely doves or songbirds.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: Joybell
Date: 22 Nov 05 - 05:48 PM

Thanks for this Dave'sWife. At the time when we nearly met you, we visited our friends in Gila New Mexico just when the Mockingbirds turned up for the Spring. I'd never heard them and I was delighted. Our friend says he's delighted too - when they first arrive. By the end of Summer he's feeling murderous. He says it's their habit of never completing a musical phrase and singing the same disjoined phrases in different combinations without resolving anything. And all with funny key changes that don't work. They were just warming up when we left.
We have a bird nick-named the Headache Bird - but it just pipes the one ear-shattering note over and over. You get used to that. Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Nov 05 - 06:45 PM

Joy,

I've been taking my dogs out for walks in the field where we walked when you visited. On our way to the prairie area we follow a path through the trees and brush. The terrier always spots the game trails, the blue heeler doesn't. On the days when there is lots of activity in the brush I usually stop in my tracks and make the dogs sit (they're on leashes). They're so funny to watch--as they start hearing all of the movement their ears go up and their heads dart around! The body language is marvelous.

Today I took my son along and gave him a point-and-shoot digital camera to try out. While he was getting larger shots I was able to creep up on trap door spider webs--the grass is full of them this fall.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: Ron Davies
Date: 22 Nov 05 - 11:42 PM

"taken up residents in the Attic there"--sounds like he's eating the neighbors (the cottage must not in fact be abandoned)--just how big is this hawk?

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: Peace
Date: 22 Nov 05 - 11:51 PM

"just how big is this hawk?"

Last week the hawk was heard to say to another hawk after pouncing on a beef cow: "Do you want to eat it here or should we take it home for the kids."

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: yrlancslad
Date: 22 Nov 05 - 11:53 PM

We were having all kinds of trouble with racoons getting in our garbage 'till we had a visit from a mountain lion (cougar) which dined on a couple. "Twas 18 months before we saw a racoon again-they're clever little suckers!

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: dianavan
Date: 23 Nov 05 - 02:07 AM

I have a photo of an eagle with the head of a baby possum in its beak. Its from Denby Island where the possums were imported.

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: Ron Davies
Date: 23 Nov 05 - 11:53 PM

"taken up residents in the Attic. The Crow stayed to eat what was left"--man o man they must have BIG birds in California (not just the hawks). And after they were both finished, I'll bet that attic really was deserted.

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: Flash Company
Date: 24 Nov 05 - 05:53 AM

Just read all the above, Delighted!
There was a programmme on UK tv last week about a pair if Eagle Owls which are breeding very successfully in Yorkshire. A po-faced geezer from the RSPB insisted that they are not an indigenous species, and are therefore not protected by law.
He actually said 'Of course, I am not suggesting that someone should go and shoot them.......'
The birds themselves were beautiful, and apart from reducing the rabbit population seemed to be no threat to anyone.
RSPB man say, 'They are quite capable of taking a lamb'.
No evidence from any European habitat that they do though.
An 18th century book refers to them as UK resident. (RSPB We require better evidence than a mention in a book!)
I'd better stop, it aint good for my blood pressure

FC

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: frogprince
Date: 24 Nov 05 - 11:38 AM

Dianavan, that is soooo gross! Now if you can get it printed in poster size, and we can think of some morbid twist on "inspirational"
poster text to go with it...

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 24 Nov 05 - 07:39 PM

Well.. I wasn't gonna say anything about my weird red-shouldered hawk Nightmare until I saw I mispelled residence and now you all think the Hawk is eating homless people squatting in the abandoned cottage...

So.. last night I had this dream which started out with that Big Hawk coming back to the yard and trying to carry off the black cat who lives under my cottage. Only thing is - it was the size of a person. I started beating it with a broom saying:

"Give me back the cat!"

It said: "Finders keepers, the cat's mine.

I started beating him harder and then another Hawk the size of a person came by and started hassling me to stop beating her husband. They were both yelling at me (in english). Somehow, I got Inky the cat away from them and then the two hawks just shrugged and started walking down the street. they called back to me:

"we'll come back for him later"

And then I woke up.

It was so real, I went outside to make sure Inky was OK and brought him back in the house for a snuggle.


We haven't seen them eating any birds lately, but we have seen them flying. I think they are living in the cottage attic. Good place for them.

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: Sorcha
Date: 24 Nov 05 - 07:57 PM

Why don't you let Inky just stay inside???

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: GUEST,Inky
Date: 24 Nov 05 - 08:47 PM

Look, Sorcha, would YOU want to be under permanent house arrest? I don't think so! I will take my chances and enjoy the world while it is still out there for me to enjoy.

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: pdq
Date: 24 Nov 05 - 08:50 PM

What does a 300 pound mockingbird say?

"Here kitty, kitty, kitty."

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: Peace
Date: 24 Nov 05 - 08:56 PM

CHIRP

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: pdq
Date: 24 Nov 05 - 09:00 PM

Sure you didn't mean BURP?

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: GUEST,Inky
Date: 24 Nov 05 - 09:05 PM

How does a 300 pound mockingbird fly?

Straight down! Terminal velocity in mere seconds....hell of a mess when he "lands". Birds this big need a cliff or a catapult or something like that to even get airborne in the first place...

The only way they'll ever kill you is if they happen to fall on you.

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 24 Nov 05 - 10:07 PM

Sorcha - the story of Inky the Cat is a long and dramatic one - perhaps I'll open a thread and tell it. I wrote it up for a friend's blog but the link is down. Here's the bare facts:

Once upon a time there was a kitten who got adopted by a nice couple in my neighborhood. Since he came from the pound, he had to have his nads cut off when he was just 10 weeks old. poor baby. They named him Joey. When he was 3 months old, he escaped their house and got lost in the neighborhood. Around that same time, Joey showed up under my house. We left food for him, but he'd never let us pick him up. He liked to climb trees and hunt mice, birds, rats, lizards etc. We got tolike him and called him INKY.

Then one day his mommy and daddy came around asking all the street residents if they had seen a friendly young black cat who liked to climb trees. In unison my husband and I shouted:

"INKY!"

We then described him to the mommy and daddy and how he had a little tiny tuft of white on his belly, black whiskers and toes, how he liked to roll in the dirt and talk to the sun in the mornings. They shouted;

"Baby Joey!"

I thought there would be a happy ending for him, but sadly...when we caught him (after several weeks of me staying up on Inky-watch) and called the couple, the husband came over to look. He swore up and down that it wasn't Joey. You could tell that he adamantly did NOT want the cat to be Joey. He said :

"Joey was a lot smaller. That's not Joey"

We said:

"Umm..3 month old cats DO grow up ya know.. he''s almost 9 months now. Trust us, this is your cat."

He refused to repatriate Inky/Joey and ever since, Inky has been my semi-domesticated kitty cat. He lives under the cottage but walks in and out of the house at will. My two females hate his guts and try to kick him around, but he's good at getting away.   They resent all the special attention he gets.

On rainy days, Inky will come to the front door and cry. I of course let him in. He now sleeps with me for a few hours every night. He come to the bedroom window and cry so I let him in. At around 5 or 6 AM, he asks to go out. He's here with me right now, sitting on my lap. He likes to drink water that drips from the bathtub faucet so I took to leaving a bowl of water under the tap and now he comes in wenever he wants a drink as well.

This is all part of my long-term plan to get Inky to be more an inside cat than outside cat. I don't know if it will work, but he's progressing. He's used the cat pan a few times and found some sunny perches in the house he likes. He also recently started doing 'happy feet' on a throw blanket that's always on my bed. He likes me to make a nest of it for him and then he starts kneading away like a kitten.

Inky is however, very much a free spirit. He has been seen all over the neighborhood and he knows all the subterranian passageways and shortcuts. He likes being under the house and I doubt I will ever break him of his dust-baths. Inky is truly wild at heart.


When people ask how many cats we have, my husband now says 'Two and half".

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: Joybell
Date: 25 Nov 05 - 07:52 AM

SRS. We had a lovely time walking through your wild-land, didn't we. We often think about it. I love the places that most people call "wasteland". Or "Badlands". We have funnel-web spiders that have a sort of trap-door. They aren't the poisonous kind like the Sydney Funnel-web. Gentle shy creatures. Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: Bat Goddess
Date: 25 Nov 05 - 07:55 AM

I've got a feral-born named Creamsicle (living in the HOUSE, fer pete's sake!) who only counts as half a cat in our herd. Runs whenever "The Giants" (who feed and shelter her and offer her affection which is repulsed) come into the room. Sigh.

Also had a grizzled old Tom (refugee from our deceased neighbor's barn) snatched and eaten by a Great Horned Owl. He must have looked like a skunk to the hungry owl.

Also had a mourning dove (back in my youth) who really deserved to be eaten by something. Loud bugger whose sense of appropriate timing was definitely off.

Linn

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: Joybell
Date: 25 Nov 05 - 05:39 PM

The grand-daughter of a friend of mine is in a Christian household. When she was about five she was a bit frightened about being "raptured". "Raptored?" - taken by raptors? We joked. I gave my friend some great pictures of little girls being taken by eagles. Some of those wonderful over-the-top Victorian ones. Told her not to show them to the grand-child just yet. Cheers, Joy

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: robomatic
Date: 25 Nov 05 - 08:44 PM

Dianavan, I'd love a gander at your pic of the eagle o'possum. Here in 'laska we have a lot of tourist shops full of cards. One of them, I haven't seen it in ages, was a lovely photo of a wolf with the arm of some smaller beast, probably a groundsquirrel, dangling from its muzzle. I used to send it to my animal-loving friends.

Just been reading a lovely little article by an author who adopted water shrews. These little beasts have very high metabolic rates and eat twice their weight in a day (or die). He fed them small fish and worms, once tossed a a frog into their terrarium and they pounced on it and began to just chew it up alive; he didn't have the heart to watch so he removed the frog and contented himself with smaller prey for the ravenous little killers. He wrote that prey getting eaten alive was the rule rather than the exception in the wild.

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: frogprince
Date: 25 Nov 05 - 08:50 PM

I think I got it; Dianavan's picure, as a big "inspirational" poster, wlth the words "Embrace Your Destiny".

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: Ron Davies
Date: 25 Nov 05 - 10:03 PM

Let's just assume those people complaining about loud birds are doing it tongue in cheek--that's the most charitable interpretation.

Otherwise I'd have to say that they need to develop a little tolerance for the natural world. Who do you suppose was living in the area first--you or birds?   Back in the 1850's they had a healthier attitude towards mockingbirds--"Listen To The Mockingbird" (albeit over "her" grave.)


Starlings--OK-- good hawk fodder--they were imported by a giant intellect who wanted in the US all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare, and have pushed out a lot of native species. But a mockingbird is definitely a native species--and with a great musical repertoire. To want to have a mockingbird destroyed does not speak well for somebody who appreciates music.

Yes, I've experienced mockingbirds singing through the night---and I cheer them on.

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: Sorcha
Date: 25 Nov 05 - 10:44 PM

Inkers, I just want you to be able to be where you want to be...seems that you are.

Subject: RE: BS: Red-Shoulder Hawk ate my Mockingbird!
From: Dave'sWife
Date: 26 Nov 05 - 12:47 AM

Ron Davies - Northern Mockingbirds are an aggressive invasive species where I live and their increasing numbers are harming other nnative birds.

The routinely attacks cats, dogs and other birds. They chase away native birds, especially the small ones and violently defend what they perceive to be their turf. The male bachelor birds are the ones doing all the loud 'singing'and unless you have had to listen to 6 of them on one street screaming all night long, I don't think you can properly appreciate what a problem they are for some neighborhoods.

Most homeowners simply call in an exterminator who gets rid of them with black netting and other techniques. Me, I just use the hose. I can't use the big yellow balloon with eyes because that will scare away all the nice birdies who depend on the plants and trees in my yards for food. I have worked for over ten years to create an attractive environment for these birds. The Mockingbirds moved in just last year. Their presence is such large numbers is abnormal and detrimental to the other species. Once they chased away all the other birds, the starlings came in to fill the void.

My neighbors and I have been working hard to discourage the mockingbird population explosion. The appearance of this Red-Shouldered hawk may be the answer to our prayers, metaphorically speaking. Let's hope he eats as many of them as he can get his nasty talons on.