Weekly Chat (Non-Osprey), 30 April 2017

Hi, all.

I'll come back a little later to make some replies, but I had a sudden revelation this week that I wanted to share with you all. Don't feel obligated to read if you aren't interested.

I needed to put a check (cheque) in the bank a couple of days ago, so I was walking to my local small town. I looked up and noticed that Sister Hawk (R.T. Hawk's mate) was flying above me, closer than usual.

As I've said before on this forum, one or both of the hawks usually accompanies me to town, soaring over me as I walk there and back, and I've always wondered why wild hawks would feel the need to travel with a human.

I crossed the bridge over my creek, and I was climbing the hill on the outskirts of town. I heard the booming "Hoot!" of a great horned owl. I've heard that owl before. She sometimes gives me a lazy, quiet hoot as I near the top of the hill. She or her mate may even be the owl who sits on my roof and eats prey (and hoots loudly) late at night. I've never seen her on a nest, but she may be nesting in a cavity left by a squirrel or even the pileated woodpecker -- rather than a tree nest.

This time, the owl was louder and more alarmed than usual, probably because she's raising chicks (who may be nearing fledging or are already flying). Sister Hawk extended her talons and flew closer to me. That's when I finally got the message. I think the hawks are "protecting" me from the great horned owls.

I hate to anthropomorphize birds and other animals. I think wildlife is glorious on its own; I don't feel the need to assign them human qualities. But in this case, it seemed obvious that the big female hawk was moving in to "fight" the owl with me, if necessary. Hawks and great horned owls are competitors. They occupy the same ecological niche, and they don't like each other's presence in their territories. They will attack each other.

(Let me be clear: I'm crazy about owls, and I'm not afraid of the pair on the edge of town. I've always walked by that area with no threat or hostility from them, and I love hearing them call.)

I wondered why the hawks would feel an obligation to protect me from the big owls. This is my conclusion, although it may not be correct. The hawks and I have lived on my land together for a long time. They roost near my front door. They allow me to be in proximity to their fledglings. Hawks are highly territorial birds. They will attack and drive off dangerous intruders. So R.T. Hawk and his mate may consider me to be "kin" (sort of) because I inhabit their territory with them. If I'm family (or at least some sort of bonded presence in their lives), they may feel the need to protect me as they would one another.

I don't know whether I'm right. I do know that for the next few weeks, I'll drive my car to town. If the owls have juvenile offspring, they may decide to battle the hawks, and I don't want to be the cause of any injuries. There's even a very remote possibility that an owl could try to drive me off if I inadvertently got between an adult and a juvenile. I've always been careful about walking around on my patch after dark in the spring for that reason.

This was probably more than you wanted to know, but I was delighted that I may have solved the mystery. LOL

Been a somewhat discombobulating day what with one thing and another, including dropping my library book into a bowl of marinating chicken.  :-((

Diane: I love your theory about the hawks and yes, the last thing you need is to inadvertently cause a confrontation.  Would the hawks typically go after an owlet if they had the chance?  Oh  - and thank you!  Please don't feel you have to start every week.

Heather:  The retirement bash sounds like a really super evening - and I really liked the sound of your job!  :-)    

Pat O, Lindybird and Clare:  Glad your computers got sorted.

Hi to Mike and Lynette.

Hope the week is kind to all.

Unknown said:

Diane: I love your theory about the hawks and yes, the last thing you need is to inadvertently cause a confrontation.  Would the hawks typically go after an owlet if they had the chance?  Oh  - and thank you!  Please don't feel you have to start every week.

Annette: In general, both the hawks and the owls stick to killing small mammals for food here in my area (field mice, squirrels, chipmunks...), although R.T. Hawk does love to eat snakes. I don't think a hawk is eager to risk a confrontation with a parent GHO by killing an owlet. It might, though, in an attempt to rid its territory of owls. 

The hawks will eat owl chicks, and the great horned owls will eat hawk chicks -- usually if food is scarce or there's a lot of pressure on their habitat. It's rare, but there are reports of hawk and owl adults injuring or killing one another. A lethal battle can happen during a territorial dispute between an owl and a hawk. Also, hawks are vulnerable to owls at night, and owls are vulnerable to hawks during the day, so it creates an opportunity.

I think the birds of prey in my area are unsettled right now, because the raptor population is changing. It used to be that birders never saw eagles. A person was lucky to see one or two eagles during a lifetime. Now, I can visit the lake just down the road from me and see a dozen bald eagles and even some golden eagles. The scientists are astonished by the increase in this region. It may put pressure on the other bird of prey species. The eagles are beautiful to see, though.

Sorry about the library book! Hope you can clean it up; it'll probably be expensive to pay for it. :-(

Here's today's pic:

Bath time!!

Diane – How wonderful are your feathered friends.

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I hope OG continues to improve.

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Heather – You have lovely friends.

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Hello everyone I haven’t time to mention, else I won’t get my whinge out of the way!

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There was I with a whole Friday free; which library would I visit to replenish book supply? . . . and then the phone rang. Dau, not well, not coping. I had said I was available when she cancelled Wed’s nanny duty. Quickly dressed, snatched some leftovers for my lunch and away. Low on petrol, and the pump had to die halfway through. Grrr. Further delays with roadworks still “in progress” and I haven’t travelled this route for 5 weeks, in fact no sign of any workmen. I arrive eventually at Dau’s and I’ve forgotten the key to let myself in. Greeted by a pounding of feet, Little People present me with lovingly homemade cards for my birthday. Hugs all round. Then it is time to start work. Between feeding & watering, I folded 2 loads of dried washing, Miss5 helped me sort everything into correct drawers, hung out another load of washing, made up bed that had its turn for washing, fed Dau, played hide & seek, read to MissJ, was read to by Miss5, peeled veggies, referee=ed intermittent squabbles. In short 7 hours with the only respite being PlaySchool at 12.30 pm. Alas I fell asleep. When I woke an hour later & apologised to Dau, she said she knew I was asleep as Miss5 woke her up to tell her!

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Feeding time at the zoo was, shall we say, interesting. Miss5 organised me for Fruit Time – 2 bananas and an orange cut in wedges as instructed. Lunch was sandwiches “I don’t want smiley fritz”, “I do” and afternoon snack was carrot sticks with peanut butter on Clix (savoury bics) with “I don’t want peanut butter” replaced by vegemite. One licked the peanut butter and left the bic. Food groups may not be balanced but I called it a success.

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I was dismissed as they sat down to evening meal of fish & veggies, I took my headache home through dusk and late rush hour traffic. Our street at last, muttering as OH hasn’t put on the outside light. He greets me at the door “We have a power failure”. So cold leftover sausages on bread & butter by candlelight. So romantic! Showered in dark, sat on lounge to be woken by OH announcing he was going to bed. Woken again when power restored at almost 8.30 pm by which time the only TV worth watching had ended. Never mind I can read the book that Dau gave me for birthday. What a day.

Oh, heck AQ. What a hard day.  No wonder you got a headache, hope it went. My children were such bad eaters, that eventually I became relieved if they ate anything at all. After trying everything (shouting, ignoring, making sure we all sat down together, sitting them alone on a 'special' chair.....) they started eating as they grew, and both became tall and fit in the end :-)

EDIT - I've always thought that they're an advertisement for the body making use of whatever it's given. They did enjoy thei r potatoes. They both eat well now, although Youngest still only eats veggies because "it's good for you."

I'm off out for a brisk walk. It will be brisk, because it's quite windy here!

ps --  Pat - The chicken was delicious, and we're making soup out of the remains now.

Good afternoon, all!  Diane, absolutely loved your piece about the hawks and the owls - I think you're right about their behaviour.  Limpy has asked if you ever feed your hawks.

Clare Bailey said:

Good afternoon, all!  Diane, absolutely loved your piece about the hawks and the owls - I think you're right about their behaviour.  Limpy has asked if you ever feed your hawks.

Clare/Limpy: Thanks for your kind words, Clare. To answer your question: I've never fed the hawks, for several reasons, although I've been tempted a couple of times during brutally cold snaps in winter.

Hawks are solely meat eaters. I'm afraid that if I put meat out, it could spoil quickly and poison the hawks. Also, mice and other rodents might get into the meat and contaminate it with disease. The meat in the U.S. is almost all factory-farmed and it contains toxins, drugs, etc., so I'd also be afraid that something in the meat would harm the birds. I could go to a pet store and buy frozen mice, etc., but those often carry diseases, and I'd worry about the hawks' health.

I live back in the woods, and there's an abundance of food sources on my land and in the heavily forested flood plain behind my patch. So I don't worry about them. If one of them became ill and couldn't hunt, I'd probably take steps to get the bird food, even though I don't believe in interfering with Mother Nature.

I've never handled the hawks, either, although the female has considered landing on me a couple of times. In general, I don't think that habituating wild raptors to humans is a good idea for their own safety. Also, red-tailed hawks are very large. They can be over 2 feet tall (that's 61 cm), and their wingspan can extend over 4 feet or 122 cm. R.T. Hawk's mate is over 2 feet tall. So I'm a little wary of getting too close physically, because they are wild animals, and I'm not as young as I used to be. LOL

I'm glad you got your computer working, Clare!