FreeLists / tn-bird / [TN-Bird] Re: Aephids, yum: clothespins, ho-hum: owl/possum!]

["Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey TN-Biders:

I have been trapping and banding Red-tailed Hawks from the wild for the
better part of 20 years. We set out a roadside noose cage that tangles the
Red-tail's feet when they try to capture a European Starling which is inside
the noose cage.  Once caught, the cage is too heavy for the Red-tailed Hawk
to lift off the ground but they can drag it a short distance.  Our trap
weights about 1.5 pounds.  Red-tailed Hawks get up to about 3.5 pounds in
body weight and can't lift a trap as heavy as half their body weight.  I've
never even seen a Red-tail get our trap off the ground a few inches in the
air.  The largest Eastern Gray Squirrels usually run about 1.5 pounds in the
wild.  An Eastern Cottontail rabbit will usually not weight more than 4
pounds.  A Red-tailed Hawk has no ability at all to lift and carry a full
grown rabbit.  It's talons are too small to even handle such a large mammal.

I want to wink and raise an eyebrow when someone tells me that their 10
pound house cat has been carried away by a Red-tailed Hawk.

Great Horned Owls are a slightly different story.  This big owl has much
larger talons and toes than a Red-tailed Hawk.  It has great power when
compared to a Red-tailed Hawk.  A Great Horned Owl body weight is about 4
pounds, if it is one of the very largest ones.  Great Horned Owls are famous
for having the scent of the Striped Skunk in the feathers when brought into
captivity.  Charlie Muise made a nice point in explaining that.  The skunk
will weigh about 3 pounds or a little more if it is full grown.

I have seen dead rabbits in the nest of a Great Horned Owl as food for young
owlets but never the full animal.  It is usually the hind part.  I don't
know if a very large female Great Horned Owl can carry a 4 pound rabbit up
to its nest.  The owl herself will not weight any more than 4 pounds.

We have watched a Red-tailed Hawk trying to carry an Eastern Gray Squirrel
one day and it had a tremendous struggle trying to get it off the ground and
up to the branch of a small dogwood.  It tried four or five times and ended
up dropping it twice before it could get the squirrel up to a limb about 6
feet above the ground.  I have seen Red-tailed Hawks carrying smaller
Eastern Gray Squirrels high in the air.  And I have seen Great Horned Owls
hunting Gray Squirrels at night by a full moon.  The tree had several
squirrels running on the branches in the moonlight after midnight and the
owl was in among them giving chase.

A 10-pound house cat killed and/or carried off by a Red-tailed Hawk  ;-)  I
don't think so.

Let's go birding....

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Raincrow" <raincrow@xxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "TNbird" <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, August 10, 2004 12:41 AM
Subject: [TN-Bird] [Fwd: Aephids, yum: clothespins, ho-hum: owl/possum!]


> Hi Dee
> An old acquaintence, an old-timey sawyer, watched a red-tailed hawk take
> one of his full-grown and very "battle-seasoned" tomcats, a 10 pounder
> at least. If a red-tail can take a fully grown adult tom, I imagine (but
> don't know for sure) that a Great horned can take whatever size of cat
> it pleases, and the anecdotes I have heard about GH owls and cats
> through the years support my supposition, but they are indeed just
> anecdotes.
>
> Liz Singley
> Kingston, TN
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [TN-Bird] Aephids, yum: clothespins, ho-hum: owl/possum!
> Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2004 18:01:26 EDT
> From: Dthomp2669@xxxxxxx
> Reply-To: Dthomp2669@xxxxxxx
> To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
> Greetings from the Charlotte Park area of West Nashville just east of
> the old
> Cleece's Ferry which was on the Cumberland River.
> About an hour ago, a migrating Cape May warbler appeared at the tender
> end of
> a grape vine which was wrapped around a perchable wire.  Our little bird
> proceeded to devour the yummy aphids which were sucking the juices out
> of the
> forming grape leaves.  It was a male bird that perched in the brilliant
> light at
> just the proper angle for me to see its rufous around the eye and the
> yellow on
> its neck.
>
> For a couple of days, I have noticed my hummingbirds "checking out" some
> RED
> clothespins which I have clipped to some clothes hangers outside the
> French
> doors to the deck.  (I use them for hanging freshly washed "zip-loc"
> baggies
> which I reuse)  I think the hummers wonder if these clothespins are a
> new kind of
> feeder.  They perch on the hanger, quickly investigate the RED pins
> only,
> they fly over to join the crowd at the hummingbird feeder with its RED
> base.
> It's beginning to look like Atlanta International with all the little
> jet-hummers
> zipping around or waiting in line for their turns at the "three-holer"
> feeder.
>
> Regarding that owl that Charlie said may have been REALLY looking at
> that
> possum, I can tell you that if that owl was eyeing the possum, he was
> looking at
> about 7 to 8 pounds of BIG possum!  I know the great horned is BIG, but
> I
> rather doubt that he could carry that much weight.  I also doubt that it
> planned
> to eat the possum on my deck, but, who knows?  Maybe that was its plan.
> A
> great horned did drop about a 3 pound rabbit in front of my car out in
> Cockrill
> Bend one night although I think my car lights may have blinded him
> rather that
> the weight of a wriggley rabbit causing it too lose its grasp.
>
> I DID finally have a lone baby cardinal come to dine day before
> yesterday.
> It was good to see a little "black beak" for a change!
>
> Cheers & prayers,
>
> Dee
>
>
> =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================
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>         by the members of this discussion group.
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>          Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
>                  wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
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>
> The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with
> first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation.
> -----------------------------------------------------
> ----------------------------------------------------
> To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
> tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> ----------------------------------------------------- 
> To unsubscribe, send email to:
> tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>
>   TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society
>        Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s)
>         endorse the views or opinions expressed
>         by the members of this discussion group.
>
>          Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
>                  wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>  * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>      Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
>           web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
> Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp
> * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
>
>     ========================================================
>
>
>


=================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER=====================

The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with
first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation.
-----------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------
To post to this mailing list, simply send email to:
tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
----------------------------------------------------- 
To unsubscribe, send email to:
tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx 
with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

  TN-Bird Net is owned by the Tennessee Ornithological Society 
       Neither the society(TOS) nor its moderator(s)
        endorse the views or opinions expressed
        by the members of this discussion group.
 
         Moderator: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN
                 wallace@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
     Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society
          web site at http://www.tnbirds.org
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp
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