« Return to Thread: Why mob a Purple Martin?
Re: Hawks 1, Crows 0
by Jeff Bouton
::
Rate this Message:
When you spend the better part of a decade standing on hawk watch platforms spring & fall or sitting in hawk trapping blinds, and then spend 10+ hours a day staring at Peregrine Falcon eyries in summer and then work on winter population studies of varying raptors, you naturally wind up with a BUNCH of these stories... enough that I could easily babble on for weeks likely.
At any rate, I have at least one anecdote observed from the hawk watch platform in Cape May in 1987 where the score was reversed. CROW 1, HAWK 0!
One afternoon while viewing from the platform a Fish Crow began harrassing a Kestrel in front of the platform. The two eventually wound up grappling and both spun to the ground out in front of the platform disappearing into the tall phragmites marsh. Soon after the plummet another crow winged into the same spot. You could here the crows and the Kestrel for a short while, then just some crow noise. The Crows re-emerged after some minutes but the many eyes on the platform never saw any sign of the kestrel again!
Best,
Jeff Bouton
Port Charlotte, FL
jbouton2@...
--- On Mon, 6/29/09, Gail Mackiernan <katahdinss@...> wrote:
From: Gail Mackiernan <katahdinss@...>
Subject: [BIRDCHAT] Hawks 1, Crows 0
To: BIRDCHAT@...
Date: Monday, June 29, 2009, 8:29 AM
My husband and I had a similar experience with Red-tailed Hawk vs. Crow --
we were doing the annual mid-winter gull survey at the (now, alas, defunct)
Laytonsville Landfill in Maryland. The landfill used to attract huge numbers
of gulls, but also crows (mostly American Crow), vultures and a few
Red-tailed Hawks which probably fed on the abundant rats.
Anyway, we were driving up the dump service road past an area that had been
filled and then covered with earth. There were about 300 crows sitting
silently on the ground, spread out into a large circle. In the center of
that circle was a 15'-wide open area and in the center of that open area, a
Red-tail with its foot on a dead crow. All the crows were staring at the
hawk with a look as if to say, "Wow, I didn't know they could do THAT!"
Unfortunately we had missed the "moment of truth" so unsure how the crow met
its demise, but assumed it got too bold in harassing the hawk.
Gail Mackiernan
Silver Spring, MD
on 06/27/2009 11:06 PM, Marcel Gahbauer at marcel@...
wrote:
> On that note, I've been meaning to mention an encounter I observed last week
> while doing some field work around Edmonton, Alberta. Two crows were
> harassing a perched Red-tailed Hawk at length - and since the hawk was
> barely flinching, I didn't watch for too long, letting myself instead get
> distracted by work :-). All of a sudden I heard a horrific scream, and
> looked over just in time to see the hawk flying away with one of the crows
> in its talons! I wish I had seen how it happened, since I've watched
> countless hundreds of such interactions, and until now the crows always
> seemed to get away unscathed. Has anyone else seen them push their luck too
> far and end up getting grabbed by their intended victim?
>
BirdChat Guidelines: http://www.ksu.edu/audubon/chatguidelines.html
Archives: http://listserv.arizona.edu/archives/birdchat.html
BirdChat Guidelines: http://www.ksu.edu/audubon/chatguidelines.html
Archives: http://listserv.arizona.edu/archives/birdchat.html
At any rate, I have at least one anecdote observed from the hawk watch platform in Cape May in 1987 where the score was reversed. CROW 1, HAWK 0!
One afternoon while viewing from the platform a Fish Crow began harrassing a Kestrel in front of the platform. The two eventually wound up grappling and both spun to the ground out in front of the platform disappearing into the tall phragmites marsh. Soon after the plummet another crow winged into the same spot. You could here the crows and the Kestrel for a short while, then just some crow noise. The Crows re-emerged after some minutes but the many eyes on the platform never saw any sign of the kestrel again!
Best,
Jeff Bouton
Port Charlotte, FL
jbouton2@...
--- On Mon, 6/29/09, Gail Mackiernan <katahdinss@...> wrote:
From: Gail Mackiernan <katahdinss@...>
Subject: [BIRDCHAT] Hawks 1, Crows 0
To: BIRDCHAT@...
Date: Monday, June 29, 2009, 8:29 AM
My husband and I had a similar experience with Red-tailed Hawk vs. Crow --
we were doing the annual mid-winter gull survey at the (now, alas, defunct)
Laytonsville Landfill in Maryland. The landfill used to attract huge numbers
of gulls, but also crows (mostly American Crow), vultures and a few
Red-tailed Hawks which probably fed on the abundant rats.
Anyway, we were driving up the dump service road past an area that had been
filled and then covered with earth. There were about 300 crows sitting
silently on the ground, spread out into a large circle. In the center of
that circle was a 15'-wide open area and in the center of that open area, a
Red-tail with its foot on a dead crow. All the crows were staring at the
hawk with a look as if to say, "Wow, I didn't know they could do THAT!"
Unfortunately we had missed the "moment of truth" so unsure how the crow met
its demise, but assumed it got too bold in harassing the hawk.
Gail Mackiernan
Silver Spring, MD
on 06/27/2009 11:06 PM, Marcel Gahbauer at marcel@...
wrote:
> On that note, I've been meaning to mention an encounter I observed last week
> while doing some field work around Edmonton, Alberta. Two crows were
> harassing a perched Red-tailed Hawk at length - and since the hawk was
> barely flinching, I didn't watch for too long, letting myself instead get
> distracted by work :-). All of a sudden I heard a horrific scream, and
> looked over just in time to see the hawk flying away with one of the crows
> in its talons! I wish I had seen how it happened, since I've watched
> countless hundreds of such interactions, and until now the crows always
> seemed to get away unscathed. Has anyone else seen them push their luck too
> far and end up getting grabbed by their intended victim?
>
BirdChat Guidelines: http://www.ksu.edu/audubon/chatguidelines.html
Archives: http://listserv.arizona.edu/archives/birdchat.html
BirdChat Guidelines: http://www.ksu.edu/audubon/chatguidelines.html
Archives: http://listserv.arizona.edu/archives/birdchat.html
« Return to Thread: Why mob a Purple Martin?
| Free embeddable forum powered by Nabble | Forum Help |
