[TN-Bird] Hawk and Mock battle

From: Dthomp2669@xxxxxxx
To: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Sun, 17 Nov 2002 16:17:56 EST
A little before 7 AM today, I went out on my deck to fill my feeders and 
realized there was a lot of bird activity in my yard.  I heard all kinds of 
chips and chucks (one a very thrush-like sound which I kept searching for) as 
well as just a lot of fluttering activity.  Things were everywhere, fussing 
and flitting around.  In my search to find the thrushy sound, I finally 
looked up over my rooftop from the deck and saw IT.  For the next twenty 
minutes or so, I had the pleasure of watching an immature red-tailed
hawk which was perched on the utility pole at the corner of my front yard 
only about 35 feet from my front door.  I watched from the deck (at the back 
of the house) to see all the activity.  My "Boss Mock" had flown up there and 
kept flying at the hawk from every direction and making several good hits.  
It ruffled and misaligned a few hawk feathers.  The hawk just watched "Boss", 
but remained unresponsive to the attacks.  After some ten minutes of making 
attacks, "Boss" flew off to find the other "Boss" for 
some back-up.  They both came back, made more attacks, gave up and left after 
having put on a delightful show which made my day.  Meanwhile, some forty 
rock doves and several starlings had remained perched on the power line that 
runs beside my house back to the transformer pole about a hundred feet behind 
my house.  The hawk seemed completely unconcerned with them although their 
"lineup" started only ten feet or so behind its perch.  My neighbor drove up 
in her car and parked right under the pole, got out and slammed her door.  
This did not bother the bird either.  The red-tail was very cool, calm and 
collected the whole time and finally left in the direction of Bell's Bend 
where it was probably born last season in an area where red-tails have nested 
for many years.

After "Immi" the red-tail left, all the squirrels came out to eat the food 
that I had put out previously.  They had apparently squirreled themselves 
away in their massive nests in my back yard trees as long as the hawk was 
there.  I don't know how long the bird had been around, but maybe it had 
squirrel for breakfast before I located it and was just digesting its meal 
while perched calmly on the front pole.  My neighborhood has about four 
houses on each side per block, so this young critter is not intimidated by 
activity.

Some years ago, I had another immature perch for a long while on the 
transformer pole in back, and red-tails soar over the neighborhood every once 
in a while.  An adult pair has been quite common around here all year long 
for the eleven years I have lived here.

Dee Thompson
Charlotte Park, West Nashville
Nashville, TN
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[TN-Bird] Hawk and Mock battle

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