Dead hawk in our driveway last night.

[kick-ass-bob]

The family and I got home last night @ 6:30, and at 7:00 when I took the dog out - I noticed something at the bottom of the driveway. I go down and it is a dead hawk (smaller than other hawks I've seen.)

There were no signs of injury anywhere on it, so that freaked me out a bit. We called Animal Control to see if they were testing birds and they were not - because they hadn't had any reports of disease.....


Wouldn't you need to test something to get a report of disease?


Anyway, I go back out and look around, and decide the bird had an accident with the high tension power lines that were right above where it fell.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

:freak: Was I overreacting?

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Not over-reacting in my book

[ET Awful]

2. Hmmm, I don't know if you were overreacting or not, but I do feel

sorry for the poor feathered guy.

[matcom]

3. do you have outdoor cats?

:spank: Matcom :spank:

j/k

sorry about the hawk x(

[kick-ass-bob]

7. Actually, there are outdoor cats around.

I was pissed that it wasn't those cats that did it!

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

4. Oh, I thought it was Rumsfeld or Wolfowitz. Well, one can dream, right? nt

[madrchsod]

5. better safe than sorry

might be abit early for disease but ya never know...

[stellanoir]

6. How sad.

In this current environment, it's wise to err on the side caution.

You didn't over react.

We luckily have a bird sanctuary nearby who are happy to do testing which I've relied on several times.

RIP Hawk.

[On the Road]

8. Birds Occasionally Have Heart Attacks While Flying

That could be it.

[kick-ass-bob]

10. hmm.

I never thought about that. Thanks.

[YankeyMCC]

11. Wow!

That'll ruin your day.

[H2O Man]

9. I had a Cooper's Hawk

injured near my driveway once. (They look a lot like the Sharp-shinned Hawk, but are a little bigger.) I was able to catch it and bring it to a vet. My neighbor said he saw it fly into a phone pole when it was diving for its lunch. Reading your post reminded me of it.

[Red State Rebel]

12. My diagnosis....

I was at an lecture by a raptor bird program and they talked about how a lot of times these birds are poisoned from eating mice who have ingested poisons. Think Decon mice poison, rat poisons. There is a good chance that the hawk had eaten a mouse who had ingested poison somewhere.

[kick-ass-bob]

13. So if I leave it out and the ants get in it

(they already were) :o

Will it kill them too?

Please?

[CornField]

14. Or it was purposefully poisoned by farmers

Tis the season

[Atlas Mugged]

15. No - I have things tested when I'm suspicious

A couple of years ago I was cleaning the nesting boxes on my property and I found a dead Tree Swallow sitting on dead, barely discernible, babies. I took the whole mess into my local nature center and it tested positive for West Nile.

On the subject of hawks, talk about a mixed blessing! I love them, however when they discover my bird feeders and think they're buffetts, it's another story entirely. My saddest incident was a couple of weeks ago when we still had snow on the ground. I was walking around my pond checking the ice and I found a bird I'd never seen before on the ground. It was injured badly in the wing area and couldn't fly. Coolest bird I've ever seen - turned out to be an American Woodcock. I took it to the nature center and they're taking care of it now. I wish to hell I'd taken pictures but I was more concerned about the bird than my photo collection. Anyway, the vets at the nature center verified that it was attacked by a hawk.