Get Him While He is Down

[jerp]

For the last couple of years I've participated in a European-style pheasant shoot at a hunting club in Kansas. This has been going on for there decades and the hawks have figured out the game. When people start staging for the shoot (as many as 100 pheasants released in a one hour shoot) several dozen hawks start circling way up high. When a bird is just winged and falls out there a ways it's cool to see them tuck there wings and streak to the ground. Hawks are fat and happy around there.

[Gary Roberson]

A "free coyote" means one that we didn't call in, simply drove up on it. I am guessing that the hawk realized that the coyote was dying as he made contact while the dog was still kicking. I am sure that he thought that dinner was served.
I am sorry if my terminology is exotic...I hang around too many old coyote callers.
Adios,
Gary

[Bowhuntinonly]

Hey Gary that's a neat story, kill more coyotes!

[SaltwaterSlick]

Had one land on top of a feeder once while my son and I were gun hunting... My son shot a cull and it dropped right under the feeder and started kicking... that hawk dropped off the feeder and latched onto the deer and flapped his wings like crazy as if to try to fly off with the deer. My son was about 10 years old or so and he got all kind of excited about that hawk stealing his deer and wanted to shoot it... I had a little explaining to do as to why we couldn't do that... After about 20 minutes of the hawk harassing the dead deer, we got down out of the stand and walked out to it. That hawk got all excited and started to screeching and circling over us and swooping down and dive bombing us... He was not a happy camper with us taking his deer... Dangdest thing I ever witnessed. Probably a good thing I was there too for the hawk... My son was none too happy about the hawk takin' over his deer either...

[kumathebear]

Back in my tractor mowing days I'd see the hawks post up as I cut the tall weeds. I would start on the outer edges and move toward the center. As the uncut weed patches got smaller, the big field mice and rats would begin to scurry and the hawks would swoop down again and again. It got to where they would follow the tractor every time I went out to mow. I guess it was like a dinner bell to them when they heard that brush hog crank up. It was pretty fun to watch.

I would do the same thing! I had a kolpin gun mount on the left fender of my tractor and carried a snake charmer to break the boredom of the "bouncing tractor" to occasionally blast a rat! There were two red hawks tht would do the same thing and it is something to watch.

But, got old and sold so no more...

[Playa]

We were quail hunting near Archer city one year, and we had tons of hawks. the local wheat crop had been knocked down by weather, and the rodent population had soared. Well, the hawks would shadow us as we hunted, and if you winged a quail, they would follow it down and nab it before any dog would get there. It took no time to train the hawks. I know we have lots of hawks that winter here, but seems like you could look around and see 20+ hawks at any time.

Happened to me a couple of days ago when a kestrel That was perched in an evergreen watched a pair of quail pop out. I knocked one down that was still flopping and the dog passed it in pursuit of the non wounded bird. Luckily the dog caught wind and the turned back to get the wounded bird as the kestrel was about 1/2 way there. Ol kestrel put on the brakes and veered up and away when my ol ugly Draht came bounding back for the bird