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I went out to my shop to get some tools. Walked in and there was a young hawk sitting on a window frame near the drillpress looking as if he really wished he could figure out how to open the window. So, I opened all the doors and chased him around until he found his way out. He didn't seem to be terribly afraid. I suspect that if I knew more about training birds and had the time to fool with it, he might have made a good pet.

I'm a rural mail carrier in Dahlonega, Ga. One day I was pulling up to a box and I noticed something sitting on top of it. As I got closer I realized it was a young hawk. I figured he would fly away as I pulled up----WRONG! I couldn't beleive it. He just sat there looking at me---and I, at him. Not more than 2-2 1/2 feet apart. He didn't leave until I tried to put the mail in the box. Very nice experience.

Paw

We get a lot of hawks up here, and they're amazing to watch.
Sometimes you'll get a group (flock? flight?) of them sitting in the trees looking for lunch, or circling in the sky watching for lunch to arrive.
Beautiful & majestic.

Birds of Prey are fascinating aren't they? We've had a pair of Red Shouldered hawks living across the road for a number of years and every summer we get to watch the fledglings grow up and learn to hunt. You don't really think of hawks as clumsy until you get to watch a juvenile flub scoring lunch. Oh, did I mention we don't have a rodent problem?

Got really lucky one time on a business trip to Germany, and made a weekend trip to Hohenwerfen in Austria (about 30 miles south of Berchtesgaden), a really cool and fully restored mountaintop castle. Well, it's also a Police Museum, and a Falconry School, and I was wandering about after going through the Police Museum (this castle was the site of the Castle in "Where Eagles Dare" with Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood, although they filmed in Spain, but this place is equally formidable, and I'm sure was probably used by the German Army, SS or Gestapo during the 2nd World War) Well, anyhoooo, I was walking about and wandered out into the inner courtyard, and there are guys standing on the upper walls, with the Austrian Alps behind them, and I had stumbled right into one of the occasional shows they put on with the various Birds of Prey that they have there (not only Falcons, but Eagles, Hawks, and others as well, and ranging in size from about the size of a dove to a few with 6 foot wingspans). Well, I had to stick around and see this, and people were just kind of scattered around sitting on the ground, so I grabbed a rock and sat down, and the handler had one of the bigger ones (wingspan was easily 5-6 feet!!!!) buzz me, and I mean CLOSE. His wingtip was easily within half an arms reach, and to be that close to a bird THAT big, all I can say is WOOOOW!!!!!(of course, the setting didn't hurt either!!!)

Fortress Hohenwerfen

For the last couple days there have been 2 Broad Winged Hawks hanging out in the trees behind my house.Pretty cool to watch them.They perch until the spot somthing edible then swoop down and grab it, Saw one snatch a mouse or mole out of the nieghbors yard yesterday, Trouble is they are scarring the birds away form my feeders. On the plus side I havent seen a squirrel around in 3 days either.

Several years back I had to take my service truck way the H.. out a power line road to repair a dozer.

I saw this Red Tail Hawk following alongside me, flying from pole to pole.
I wondered why he was doing that until I scared a rabbit out from under a bush near the road.

A couple of years back, a red tailed hawk landed in my back yard (about 20 feet from my back door) with a squirrel that it had just killed. It sat there for about a half hour and ate...then took off with what was left - for his nest I'm presuming. It was fascinating in that I went out and sat on my back and watched, and it could care less. I have a few pics laying around somewhere of 'the feast' - will see if I can dig them up..

Check out the hunting vids and pictures on this page

Berkut

I ran through a bunch of Turkey Buzzards dining on roadkill today. Ok, not quite the same thing

There is a pair of Red Tails living behind my house. I absolutely love it. Every time they perch in the one tree I run for the binoculars. Sooo beautiful. They often sit there a call for minutes at a time. I love to hear thier voices. This is the second year for them. It really makes me happy to see they are coming back to the area.

In keeping with the raptor thread about 5am this morning our local Barred Owl began hooting and woke up a flock (?) of wild turkeys and we had a quater hour fowl driven gabfest in the woods on my farm. It was so funny I woke up the missus laughing which wasn't so funny to herself. Next time I'll go outside and sit on the porch