Harris Hawk and magpies

[sooey]

The other week there was what I later came to think was a Harris Hawk hanging around in the back gardens.
It was perched on top of a large tree next door. it had some kind of a thin strap dangling down a few inches from it's leg, so may have been an escaped pet.
The funny thing was that lot's of magpies started harassing it to drive it away, they were taking turns to dive bomb it and coming to within a few feet before veering away.
When it eventually took off they all followed it to see it off.
While it was happening it reminded me of that scene from king kong where all the planes are buzzing round the big gorilla.
I suppose that wouldn't be such an unusual sight for country dwellers, but for a townie it was a bit like having an episode of wildlife on one in you're back garden. Has any other townies seen stuff like that going on in their gardens?

 

[pred]

Apart from the sh1tehawks last year we had a Heron sitting on our fence no more than ten feet from the house, the nearest garden pond is four doors up but we have Henleaze "lake" at the bottom of the road.

 

[themiddleagedun]

Aye it's typical mobbing behaviour, many small birds will relentlessly mob raptors trying to move them on from their patch.

Harris hawk is a North American species, but was probably was one, as they are frequent escapees. The jesses (thin straps) proves it was a falconers bird.

Good to watch I bet?

 

[sooey]

Yes, it was an interesting 5 or 10 minute interlude. I was bit pizzed with the magpies though because we've got loads of grey squireels round our way and I wanted to see if it could cop for one of them.

 

[Harbourwoodwork]

from a train, on trip to London I saw a what I think was a crow seeing of a fox at the edge of a field,the fox couldn't take it turned round and walked away I wouldnt have believed it if I hadn't seen

 

[peterperfection]

Cat was at bottom of garden with a magpie in its open jaws toddling along.
Other Magpies went crazy dive bombing the cat , but veering away at last second.
Magpies do that- they stick together.
I'm a 'twitcher' -- and we have lots of birds in the garden every day- Sparrows, coal tits, marsh tits, blue tits great tits, goldfinches, greenfinches etc etc . Also a regular great spotted woodpecker .
We also have a sparrow hawk that pops along every so often .

We go through a 20kg sack of bird feed every 3 weeks as well as home made fat balls

A few squirrels (not the 'wirrall' type though ).

 

[longdogs]

from a train, on trip to London I saw a what I think was a crow seeing of a fox at the edge of a field,the fox couldn't take it turned round and walked away I wouldnt have believed it if I hadn't seen

My 14 year old cat saw off a fox from the garden last winter. She just shot out of the door and kept chasing until he jumped over the fence. Not sure what would have happened if the fox had turned round and stood his ground. Probably something similar to the scene in 'only fools and horses' where Rodney sees off a mugger.

 

[raebhoop]

Cat was at bottom of garden with a magpie in its open jaws toddling along.
Other Magpies went crazy dive bombing the cat , but veering away at last second.
Magpies do that- they stick together.
I'm a 'twitcher' -- and we have lots of birds in the garden every day- Sparrows, coal ****, marsh ****, blue **** great ****, goldfinches, greenfinches etc etc . Also a regular great spotted woodpecker .
We also have a sparrow hawk that pops along every so often .

We go through a 20kg sack of bird feed every 3 weeks as well as home made fat balls

A few squirrels (not the 'wirrall' type though ).

Strange forum this when you can't say t.i.t.s but it's all right to say balls.

 

[peterperfection]

Cat was at bottom of garden with a magpie in its open jaws toddling along.
Other Magpies went crazy dive bombing the cat , but veering away at last second.
Magpies do that- they stick together.
I'm a 'twitcher' -- and we have lots of birds in the garden every day- Sparrows, coal ****, marsh ****, blue **** great ****, goldfinches, greenfinches etc etc . Also a regular great spotted woodpecker .
We also have a sparrow hawk that pops along every so often .

We go through a 20kg sack of bird feed every 3 weeks as well as home made fat balls
A few squirrels (not the 'wirrall' type though ).

Strange forum this when you can't say t.i.t.s but it's all right to say balls.

Yeh- I thought that too-- but marsh balls, blue balls, coal balls dont quite sem the same .
GREAT balls seem ok though .

So the GREAT T ! TS in my life tell me .

 

[conny]

Just been watching on the telly a flock of fieldfares seeing off a raven by mobbing him and then crapping over him when he landed. Ruthless!

 

[snico]

I watch 2 peregrine falcons most mornings and evening at work. They nest at the top of one of our buildings.

One will circle the pigeons, which our place is full of!

Then the other will fly down from above and take the pigeons out, just hits them mid air and they drop to the ground....amazing sight, its great actually watching the fastest animal on the planet in action!

 

[peterperfection]

Just been watching on the telly a flock of fieldfares seeing off a raven by mobbing him and then crapping over him when he landed. Ruthless!

Got fieldfares in my garden too. as well as Robins (yes Robin'S') That terrirtorial stuf they say is not true. Have 2 who sit side by side eating early morning mealworms and sunflower hearts.

My fave is a really fat female greenfinch-- comes every day and takes lots of time eating . Nothing fazes her.
We call it Howard- after a good pal of mine .

Sad huh ?. hahah.

 

[captaincaveman1]

Cat was at bottom of garden with a magpie in its open jaws toddling along.
Other Magpies went crazy dive bombing the cat , but veering away at last second.
Magpies do that- they stick together.
I'm a 'twitcher' -- and we have lots of birds in the garden every day- Sparrows, coal ****, marsh ****, blue **** great ****, goldfinches, greenfinches etc etc . Also a regular great spotted woodpecker .
We also have a sparrow hawk that pops along every so often .

We go through a 20kg sack of bird feed every 3 weeks as well as home made fat balls

A few squirrels (not the 'wirrall' type though ).

Please explain the "wirral" type sidney ?

 

[Nige F]

Just been watching on the telly a flock of fieldfares seeing off a raven by mobbing him and then crapping over him when he landed. Ruthless!

A craven raven - did he look like a magpie then , black and white

 

[Nige F]

Cat was at bottom of garden with a magpie in its open jaws toddling along.
:

Our cat ate a dragonfly - then threw up 5 minutes later - I was a shaker ( not a twitcher ) shaking with