A hawk finally killed one of our hens. It looked more like debris from a
tornado; feathers all over the backyard. The culprit was not a Red-tailed Hawk,
but a diminutive accepter. I guess it was a Cooper's but it seemed rather
small; identification was not my primary concern at the time. Two other hen's
were injured and it took eight hours to round up the flock; scattered and
hidden about the neighborhood. The Red-tailed that had been so aggressive had
disappeared; one was run over on the road just down the a bit from our house
and I suspected that to be it.
Felt pretty bad about the duration they must have been under siege for such
carnage, should have been more attentive.
From a more on topic perspective, Cooper's hawks have been more likely to check
the hens out than Red-tails, but had never followed through, just buzzed them
and even hovered over top but never made contact that I had known. The
Red-tailed made concerted efforts but was just not skilled enough. But plenty
of Red-tailed hawks in the area have drifted over and ignored then hens or
decided they weren't appropriate prey. I assume for both, the size of the
quarry was the factor in ignoring or not following through.
Yes the culprit still lives, decided some time ago that I sympathize, just
hawks being hawks.
