Almost lost one today..

ginnie5 · #1 09/28/10, 01:43 PM

we were out playing (the kids) and working on the rabbit hutch (me) and let the chickens out for awhile. Their run is pure mud right now. They were all over the yard when something came swooping down just as dd was running by. Kinda scared her and she said what was that? I had my back turned so didn't see anything. She said something just swooped right by me. I looked and there was a hawk flying around for another try. We got out from under the big tree out back so it would see us and started herding chickens up. Guess I'll have to be a little more vigilant when the girls are out.....Tucker didn't know a thing was wrong....

SilverFlame819 · #2 09/28/10, 08:57 PM

Eek! I used to have two barns that ran parallel to each other... I was sitting down with the hens one day, just watching them do their thing, when one of my girls started staring up at the sky. I looked up and couldn't see anything. After staring for a while, I could finally make out the shape of a bird WAYYYYYYY up there. Well, the hen started making weird quiet noises and pretty soon all my girls were staring with one eyeball to the sky... After a while, the bird flew off and the girls went back to their scratching and sun bathing... Then a few minutes passed and he dive-bombed the barn. He flew perpendicular over the barns, and as most of the chickens and I were sitting between the two barns, his MASSIVE body blocked out the sun and came down to within feet over my head. He was so huge and out-of-nowhere that even I ducked and covered my head, it was so sudden. All the chickens flat-out RAN for whatever was closest and dived under. So many tried to fit under the rabbit cages that they got stuck and there were chicken butts sticking out in rows underneath them! I got up and went to look for the bird... It was HUGGGGGEEEE Golden Eagle, sitting in the tree behind the barn, just calm as could be... Scared the crap out of me! I have seen pictures of Baldies as big as people before, but this thing was a monster! I herded all my scared girls back into their coop. Some I had to forcefully pull from underneath the rabbit cages. They were pretty shook up.

Those hawks and eagles are pretty ballsy! My friend had her chihuahua snatched up by one in her FRONT YARD *when she was playing in the yard right next to the dog with her baby!*... Horrifying, and not a thing you can do about it. She said the worst part was she could actually hear the little dogs' bones snap when his talons closed around her, and the poor scared dog screaming in pain as the bird flew away...

bluetick · #3 09/28/10, 09:41 PM

The chickens were already in this evening while I sat outside the shed as the geese finished playing in their pool. A small hawklike bird came sailing across the yard and went *splat* into the chainlink fence! He got up, dusted himself off and flew away. As he flew off, I suggested he get his eyes checked!

SilverFlame819 · #4 09/28/10, 10:29 PM

*rofl* How weird! Poor little blind dude.