Hawks

Yesterday I had the good fortune to be able to spend some time up at GI Jim's store.  He told me about his new blog, http://preppingandsurviving.blogspot.com/.  While I was there I picked up my blue paracord.  I wanted that color to be able to make belts and things that were less military or survivalist looking.  He had some pink camo t-shirts.  Perfect for Girl, I think.  I never know with her...sometimes she wants only dresses, other times you'd mistake her for a boy.  Next time I'm up that way I'll have her in tow and she can tell me if she likes the pink camo. 

It's funny because one of the things we brought up were hawks.  I was talking about the two chickens being in the front pasture and wanting to put the ducks into the front with them.  I also want to take many of the chickens in the coop out and let them roam as well.  The front pasture is about 3/4 of an acre in size.  It will hold a lot of foul.  Jim told me to watch out for hawks.  He even gave me a suggestion of tying string across the pasture.  He said that the hawks will see the string and not want to fly through it to get to the foul.  Oh sure, I've seen hawks flying around but have never had any problem with them on the property.  On the other hand, of the four chickens I put in the front pasture there are now only two.  One died.  It's still out there.  One disappeared.  I figured that it ran away but thinking about it, it may have been a hawk or some other predatory bird. 

Now, I don't live in the wilderness area.  I live 10 miles outside a city of 100,000 and 15 miles outside a city of 500,000.  There's open space and farmland around me and a creek about 3/4 mile away that definitely has some wildlife in it.  I've had a mountain lion steal 20 of my sheep.  I've seen foxes come up to the door.  I've seen red-tailed hawks fly around and even an eagle has been observed nearby.  Even with all that I've never really thought about protecting my flock from flying predators.  That is until today.

I'm pretty laid back about some things around here.  On other issues I'm wound up tight.  It all depends on what it is and what my mood for the day or week is.  Really.  Aren't we all sort of like that?  Each year we get swallows building a nest at my front porch.  I have a brick post that sort of decoratively holds up a beam.  This brick post has a hollow spot because the cement doesn't come all the way to the top.  The swallows nest there and make a huge mess on the bricks and also on the front porch.  There are droppings everywhere.  I don't care.  It's cool to have a front row seat watching the baby birds mature. 

As I said, each spring I have had swallows...for the past 15 years.  Except this year.  I looked up there about a week ago and didn't see anything.  There seems to be noise coming from the post but I'm just not seeing any babies and very little droppings are stuck to the bricks.  I was dumbfounded today when I looked out the window and saw a baby hawk up on the post.  Then I saw a second.  I got the camera out and took a picture.  The second hawk was shy and went back into the post.  The first hawk, well, it loves getting its picture taken. 

One of the two baby hawks nesting inside the bricks on my front porch!