Hawks

Quote from: "princesspoultry"

Is your chicken pen big?Just asking because i have been told that a hawk doesn't have the landing space in my pen but my pen is pretty big....

I think buzzards don't like cover - they have not seemed interested in our chickens walking around among the trees and bushes - although there is a neighbouring open field full of peasants. Can't see whether they have cover since our delightful neighbour planted the border with (now 20ft high vs planning permission 6ft high) leylandii.

However, I remember in a much earlier converstaion muntjac saying the trees won't be a barrier to sparrowhawks. I have since seen a wood-pigeon being persued through the air between the trees by a hawk. And I remember a sparrow sized bird being taken to ground in front of me when we had even more trees (On open ground area/veggie plot about 20ft by 60ft)! So I would assume things upto pigeon size might be at risk from hawks!

PS. Anyone got a supply of viruses or something that attack leylandii? and why haven't you released huge quantites into the open already?

Quote from: "princesspoultry"

 Are their sparrowhawks in New York?

Here is a snippet from an online article:

The Eastern bluebird, which returned to nesting grounds in western Long Island five years ago after a 50-year absence, remains a determined if tenuous resident in a sprawling meadow nature preserve here, fighting off sparrow hawks and Wall Street bulls.

Naturalists warn that the continuing survival of the rusty-breasted songbird along the North Shore is threatened by a recent wave of housing development, paid for with hefty Wall Street profits, on the remaining fragments of old Gold Coast estates.

The new construction has displaced feathered and furry refugees who have fled to the 197-acre Tiffany Creek Preserve here and to other North Shore wildlife sanctuaries. Forced from their old hunting grounds, sparrow hawks and other predators have taken up new posts atop the slant-roofed birdhouses designed by ornithologists to attract the bluebird, the state bird of New York and long a favorite of poets and songwriters as a symbol of happiness.