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01-11-2017, 11:56 AM
This has nothing to do with goats but I wanted to share what happened yesterday. I'm a master falconer. I don't currently have a raptor I am hunting with. My Harris' Hawk died of natural causes at age 19 a couple years ago. However - raptors are a passion of mine.
Last week when I saw a sharp-shinned hawk catch a kestrel I thought I’d never see any nature event like that again. It was a once in a lifetime (thank goodness!) happening. A kestrel was my first falconry bird and I have a soft spot for them so it was hard to see the sharpie with that gorgeous male kestrel.
Yesterday morning I saw something even more unbelievable.
An immature Cooper’s hawk caught one of the Eurasian Collared Doves and landed with it just outside our back yard fence. (first photo). I’m ALWAYS happy to see them get caught. They’ve chased out the Mourning Doves from our area and are an invasive species.
The Coopers flew into one of the pine trees just outside of the fence and began plucking the dove. Then it flew to the ground below the pine to more easily pluck and eat it.
This is the same pine tree where I throw sunflower seeds under for the quail and pheasants. They like to eat where they are more protected.
I was watching the Cooper enjoy its meal when a rooster pheasant came cautiously walking toward the sunflower seed pile! It was obvious he knew the Coopers was there. The Coopers just kept eating the dove and the pheasant began eating sunflower seeds. They were only about 3’ apart! (photo 2 arrow points to Coopers).
It was amazing to watch predator and prey in such close proximity minding their own business but very aware of each other.
Then one of my squirrels came over to the pine! It cautiously jumped into the branches above the Cooper and then started jumping from branch to branch harassing the Coopers! The Cooper’s flared its wings when the squirrel got too close and moved up against the tree trunk to a more secluded location taking the dove with it.
The squirrel then jumped to the ground, went over to the sunflower seeds and began eating near the pheasant! (photo 3 with arrows to Coopers and squirrel).
I wish I was a filmmaker and could have filmed all of this in high quality. It was truly amazing to see.
The wildlife knew this storm was coming and they were trying, at all cost, to feed up before it hit.
It snowed all day yesterday, all night and was still snowing until 15 minutes ago. The geese are in and have found the remnants of the 200# of corn we put out yesterday under the snow. There isn’t much left. We have more bags of corn in the back of my truck but the snow is now so deep we’ll have to use the tractor to get into the field to put it out.
I look at the attached photos and still cannot believe I saw something so amazing happen yesterday.
breakfast.jpg (Size: 75.29 KB / Downloads: 48)
Trio.jpg (Size: 53.89 KB / Downloads: 49)
Last week when I saw a sharp-shinned hawk catch a kestrel I thought I’d never see any nature event like that again. It was a once in a lifetime (thank goodness!) happening. A kestrel was my first falconry bird and I have a soft spot for them so it was hard to see the sharpie with that gorgeous male kestrel.
Yesterday morning I saw something even more unbelievable.
An immature Cooper’s hawk caught one of the Eurasian Collared Doves and landed with it just outside our back yard fence. (first photo). I’m ALWAYS happy to see them get caught. They’ve chased out the Mourning Doves from our area and are an invasive species.
The Coopers flew into one of the pine trees just outside of the fence and began plucking the dove. Then it flew to the ground below the pine to more easily pluck and eat it.
This is the same pine tree where I throw sunflower seeds under for the quail and pheasants. They like to eat where they are more protected.
I was watching the Cooper enjoy its meal when a rooster pheasant came cautiously walking toward the sunflower seed pile! It was obvious he knew the Coopers was there. The Coopers just kept eating the dove and the pheasant began eating sunflower seeds. They were only about 3’ apart! (photo 2 arrow points to Coopers).
It was amazing to watch predator and prey in such close proximity minding their own business but very aware of each other.
Then one of my squirrels came over to the pine! It cautiously jumped into the branches above the Cooper and then started jumping from branch to branch harassing the Coopers! The Cooper’s flared its wings when the squirrel got too close and moved up against the tree trunk to a more secluded location taking the dove with it.
The squirrel then jumped to the ground, went over to the sunflower seeds and began eating near the pheasant! (photo 3 with arrows to Coopers and squirrel).
I wish I was a filmmaker and could have filmed all of this in high quality. It was truly amazing to see.
The wildlife knew this storm was coming and they were trying, at all cost, to feed up before it hit.
It snowed all day yesterday, all night and was still snowing until 15 minutes ago. The geese are in and have found the remnants of the 200# of corn we put out yesterday under the snow. There isn’t much left. We have more bags of corn in the back of my truck but the snow is now so deep we’ll have to use the tractor to get into the field to put it out.
I look at the attached photos and still cannot believe I saw something so amazing happen yesterday.
breakfast.jpg (Size: 75.29 KB / Downloads: 48)
Trio.jpg (Size: 53.89 KB / Downloads: 49)
Goatberries Happen!