Cool (bird ) story :

[Digger 66 3,521]

Hey folks , I haven't been as active here as I once was ( apologies ) .

I have been busy .

This happened to me this week and I remembered there are "birders" on this forum .

 

Last Wednesday while at work , myself and two coworkers were just shooting the breeze out in our drop lot when something caught our eyes .
It was a seemingly injured bird hopping along the fence line. Birds of prey are very common in the city . They hunt the pigeons that nest nearby.
We decided to call the SPCA and they forwarded us to the DEC. About 1/2 hour later a woman from the DEC shows up and she can't catch him. My 2 coworkers had left and I decided to help her as she was about to give up . She threw a blanket to me over the fence and told me what to do .
I managed to toss the blanket over him and get ahold of both his feet .I carried the bundled injured little guy over to her Jeep and slid it into a pet carrier. He looked in pretty rough shape to my untrained eye . I gave the woman my info and asked if she would keep me updated.
This afternoon I get a call . The bird was taken to our SPCA and is doing "quite well".
She sent me a pic .
He's about a 1 year old Coopers Hawk.
He's gorgeous.

 

 

 

[Digger 66 3,521]

[Mickwhitt 5,255]

Thats a fantastic rescue story, well done for showing such care and responsibility by doing the right thing.

We have all kinds of problems over here for our birds of prey. From road collisions killing owls as they hunt and gamekeepers poisoning hawks to stop them taking game birds. 

But we have success stories too with reintroduction of some species that had been extinct in some areas. 

We are only a tiny country and space is in great demand for housing and other building projects, so our government ignore wildlife at every turn and only pay lip service to nature conservation.

Look after your wildlife, while you still have it. 

[ebinmaine 76,610]

4 hours ago, Digger 66 said:

The bird was taken to our SPCA and is doing "quite well".
She sent me a pic .

 

 

Very cool!!

 

Thanks for helping out there. 

 

Trina and I have both done similar things here over the years. 

Maine is generally very good about caring for wildlife.  

 

Different here on future notifications though. We don't have any contact about the animals once in the care of private volunteers or state officials.  

 

 

[WHX?? 53,876]

6 hours ago, Digger 66 said:

Coopers Hawk.

They are cool birds  ...  used to have a couple around here and they did a good job of keeping black birds from raiding my sputzy feeders. 

[Pullstart 68,670]

I don’t know my birds of prey well, but I am continually attempting to improve habitats out back.  As much as I don’t want mice, I know they have a place in the food chain, and they move in with the habitats I create.  Along with having my chickens and cats around the place, I have more eagles, hawks, coyotes, and other predators around here.  It’s a nervous balance of mine, to keep the habitat growing and keep our farm animals on the ground.

[Digger 66 3,521]

He was released yesterday .

 

 

 

[rmaynard 16,781]

While on one of my walks in the summer of 2024, I found this feather on the side of the trail. I used Google Lens to determine it was a Coopers Hawk feather. Never saw the bird, but did encounter two bird watchers who were looking for, and tracking the movements of that hawk. Interesting.

 

[kpinnc 16,665]

Cool story and well done @Digger 66! 

 

We have hay fields on 3 sides of my property. The number of Hawks that show up when it's cut is awesome. Mostly red tails and a few owls, but they get down on the ground and walk around picking up field mice by the dozens. The Hawks are always around but it's cool to see them congregate in one place. 

 

As @Pullstart said, we have coyotes, Hawks, fox, bobcats, and the rare and occasional (Thank God) black bear. All the livestock here is surprisingly safe, except for the occasional chicken that wanders too far out in the open. The Hawks will take one every once in a while but the benefit of them keeping the rodents in check outweighs the occasional loss.

 

 

 

 

[Bar Nuthin 2,075]

We have a Cooper's Hawk that shows up frequently in our back yard. It's also not unusual to see Red Tail Hawks and Owls back there.

 

It was surprising to see this Red Tail Hawk doing business in our front yard, though!