Hawks must have good eyes

37chief

Well-known Member
Location
California
Finished a discing job today. While working, there was a couple hawks sitting high up in a tree watching the field. Then one would fly into the field and carried up a little mouse. I clould see mice next to the tractor, but for the birds in a tree, their eye sight must be better than mine.The bird was fairly close and I could just see the mouse. Both birds had a good breakfast, as they repeated this a lot. I saw a hawk one time carry up a fairly large snake into a tree. The hawk was really working to gain altitude, but he made it, Stan
 
Birds are very interesting creatures. They do have excellent vision, and they use it well!

I was having lunch at the city park one day. There is a small pond there and that day there were about 100 seagulls flying around, begging for scraps to eat.

Suddenly they all took off, and within a second none were to be seen. Coming over the hill was a single hawk. He made a few slow passes over the pond and left.

Within 10 seconds the seagulls reappeared from wherever they were hiding.

Always watching, always being watched!
 
I have had hawks fly in and land in trees when I've been mowing a pasture. They sit and wait for a mouse, rat or rabbit to make a break for it. HAd a roadrunner here at the house that would follow me when i mowed, like sea gulls behind a shrimp boat.
 
Hawks eye sight is eight times stronger than humans. This spring while field cultivating at 6 mph, a hawk came down and grabbed a mouse 4 feet to the front and about 5 feet to the right of the right front tire and startled me. That had to be some very good timing on it's skills.
 
Get that all the time too when cutting hay. Swamps and trees all around usual get 4-6 bunny nests plus numerous mice and voles. Always have a few hawks or an owl hanging around along with the local coyote.
 
I mow a handicapped neighbor's large yard and it takes the better part of 2 hours with a JD 345. The whole time I mow there are at least 4 barn swallows that circle around swooping just above the grass, sometimes very nearby. It's easy to see they're having fun- and eating bugs besides!
 
I have no great love for Seagulls, I call them flying rats. They are a lot smarter than they get credit for. One of the rendering plants I worked at was a few miles from Tampa Bay, everyday at 3 PM the gulls would show up to start picking scraps off of the trucks and in the process scatter material allover the parking lot. You can't shoot them (was told they're "protected"). How ever they never show up on the weekend or holidays, do they have a calender? Were we on route and if they don't see full trucks did they skip us? Honestly the seagulls were more reliable than the Mail or Waste Management
 
Many birds; especially birds of prey have 20/2 vision. This means they can see something from 20 feet and it looks the same as you looking at it from 2 feet.

While I have seen hawks sitting in the trees watching me cut a field now and again....
You can not crank a brush cutter up without egrets showing up in short order.
 
When we harvested wheat in Idaho the hawks would come diving in for a meal of kangaroo rat or whatever the little creatures were that hung out in the thick wheat. In the evening they would line up on the irrigation pivots, sometimes six or eight at a time. It broke up the boredom watching them when we were only going 1.5-2 MPH. Jim
 
You know what's fun to do? Birds breath through their beaks, but don't detect smells. You got hawks, some down time and a few beers? Take a roll of kite string, tie it to the hugest, fattest, juiciest jalapeno pepper you can find, and run it out across the property and hide behind a tree, barn, tool shed or something and give it a few tugs when a hawk is circling overhead. Thinking its a mouse or the sort, the hawk swoops down and grabs it with its tallons, then up into the nest. Give it a few and watch the hawk going nuts in the nest. The beak is faster than any sense of smell one might have. No one with any sense of humor should be above pulling a practical joke on wildlife either.

Mark
 
one time i was driving over to a neighbors ranch and saw a hawk swoop down and grab a ground squirrel and fly off, what a beautiful sight.
 

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