Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Kay and Jay Red-tail's Neighbors and Do Ravens Kill Pigeons-A comment


Photograph by Cheryl Cavert

What a beautiful fledgling sitting at his ease, with one foot tucked. Up first today, another installment of Cheryl Cavert's Red-tail Round up from Tulsa--

Donegal,

It seems Kay and Jay's RT hawk neighbors all had more successful nests then they did this spring. Immediately to their east, the 36th&Lewis pair had two fledglings, as well as RanchAcres and Langenheim. The 51st&Peoria pair to the south had one juvie.
I've attached a few photos of one of the RanchAcres juvies.


One evening while trying to eat its share of a rabbit (the back half), a mockingbird harassed it almost nonstop for 20 minutes. One photo shows how close the mockingbird was getting!!!
Next - tales of the Langenheim juvie!
--Cheryl


Photograph by Cheryl Cavert
And here we have it. A juvenile Red-tail looking Cheryl straight in the eye. Or straight into her eye through the camera, likely. I suspect it looks odd to them because they'll look at it for quite some time.

Photograph by Cheryl Cavert

How close is that Mockingbird getting? There is definite contact being made. Enough in fact for the Mocker to scrunch the young hawk's feathers with his feet. Some of the species of the common smaller attack birds, such as Mockingbirds and Catbirds, seem to know a juvenile hawk from a more experienced mature one and take advantage of the information.


Photograph by Cheryl Cavert

The juvenile takes to eating again. On this pass over it looks almost as if the Mockingbird is checking out what the hawk is eating--just in case.

Next--A contribution from Thunder, an Ontario observer, to the discussion surrounding,
Is Samantha Raven Actually Killing Pigeons?
I'm in northern Ontario. Well, last Friday, October 23rd, I witnessed a raven kill a pigeon. I work in a building, and as I was leaving for my lunch, a pigeon was feasting on little bits on the ground. A raven about 2 1/2 feet tall dive bombed directly into that pigeon and drove its beak clean into it. Poor little fellow never saw it coming. The Raven then decided to eat it, freaking out kids passing by.


Hi Thunder,

Thank you for sending in your observation. The plot thickens.


I’ve got some questions I was hoping you could help me with. You very well may not know many of the details I’m asking after as I realize you were attempting to get some lunch yourself, but any details you remember would be great.

Did you happen to see where exactly on the pigeon the predators beak entered for the kill strike?

Was it a clean kill, as in the pigeon died immediately or close to it?

Was the pigeon foraging on a sidewalk?

How busy was the area when the strike was made when it comes to people and or vehicles?

Did you see the Raven leave? Was she finished eating or did she flush off due to a disturbance and if so, did she take the pigeon with her?

Thank you!

Donegal Browne

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