Holy Shit! For Bird People, Awesome Shit Just Happened Here!

[ThomWV]

I'm sitting at the computer minding my own business and all of a sudden BAM! Something this the window about 12 feet from me so hard I am stunned it didn't break. I sort of caught it out of the corner of my eye, just a dark flash and then the BANG! We have 3 Guinea Foul that run around here and out of the corner of my eye I saw two of them running. Its starting to get a little dark so I figured that they were going to roost in a tree and flew into the window - it happens.

A moment later I looked out the window and two of the Guinea are running like hell toward the road. Hmmm? So I walk out the back door and right off the deck there is a Goshawk with its talons dug into a Guinea trying to take off with it. Holy Shit! We were about 4 feet apart, he looked at me for a bit, I looked at him, then he flew. The Guinea ran like hell. Wow!

25 years ago I saw another Goshawk nail a Road Island Red rooster and fly away with him. I never expected to see them on prey twice in my life. I can't believe I didn't grab the camera, hanging right beside the door.

[Lisa]

1. wow! That's quite a situation!

The closest I've come to that was seeing a Sharp-shinned grab a kingfisher this summer, and sit up in a tree in a nearby park, plucking its kill. I didn't get as clear a view as you did, though.

Those accipiters (bird hawks) are really something ...

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. One of my neighbors almost lost a kitten to a hawk once. I didn't see it, though. I have

seen bald eagles and ospreys taking off with fish, though.

[XemaSab]

3. *damn*

I've only ever seen teh NOGO 3 times, and every time was a treat. :)

[GoddessOfGuinness]

4. It's an amazing thing to watch...

One year we had a blizzard that shut everything down for a few days. I had a bunch of aggressive starlings coming to the feeders, and chasing my favorite birds away. I felt kind of sorry for them, so I crumbled some stale biscuits up and tossed them in the front yard, away from the feeders.

I stood and watched from the window, feeling that I'd been most charitable. Suddenly a hawk swooped down, grabbed one, snapped his neck, and flew off. My jaw dropped. But hey, hawks have to eat too. I'm glad he preferred starling to cardinal! :D

[stuntcat]

5. omg

I would've totally lost my breath or something if I saw that!

[Tyler Durden]

6. How Cool!

We had a BIG red tail nail a small bird this fall. WOW.

[Sequoia]

7. What a story !!

About a month ago we took care of our neighbors farm animals and when they came back asked us what happened to one of their ducks. There were no feathers or a body so I had no idea and felt really bad. Then, about a week ago their daughter said she saw a hawk swoop down and take a duck so now they know we didn't kidnap and eat it. (Not that they did, but they must've thought we did something.)

[blueknight]

8. seen on local tv news

last spring, a elderly lady let her little chiuahuah type dog at early in the morning, and a HUGE owl swoops down and grabs it. the little dog starts wiggling around and the owl drops it. but she still has to have like 20 stitches from the talons

[Sequoia]

11. Where I live...we have owls and hawks

and our other neighbor's many cats has quite a few liters in the spring. They put all the kittens and moms under in a fenced area with a fench on top so the owls won't get them. They told me they had seen owls and hawks take the kittens so built an enclosure to protect the cute little critters. However, one of their cats attacked a parakeet of ours last year which made us totally sad. Now we have another parkeet who thinks he's the boss of the place!

[Arkansas Granny]

9. We have a hawk that has been working our neighborhood lately.

A couple of days ago I saw a large hawk flying from one light pole to another about a block from the house and I think he/she has found a bountiful food supply. We have a rather large population of collared doves around these parts. Over the last couple of weeks I have found several piles of their feathers around the neighborhood while walking the dog. No dead birds or body parts, just feathers. I was sure it wasn't cats, because these birds are larger than pigeons. When I got home this afternoon there was a fresh pile of feathers in my back yard that wasn't there when I left for work this morning.

[NoSunWithoutShadow]

10. That's very cool

We have a juvenile Northern Goshawk that has been hanging around in our neighborhood for the last month (in SE Mich). They are beautiful hawks, the largest of the accipiters. They're big and very agile. On Christmas day the Goshawk spent almost 20 minutes in our small city yard. We took 40 digital photos of him. We went outside to take the pictures and he was not to be deterred, we were able to get within 15 feet of him. He must have been very hungry. We were pretty sure it was a male based on our photos of him, standing at 19 inches. For those interested, here is an internet photo of this beautiful juvenile raptor. (Our photos were not as good.)