Trapping season!!!!!

[FrankT]

Just too cool, is it hard to get them to come to the trap if they see it and the bait? You need a video cam on the trap.

 

[Itsazonik]

Now that's something to catch on video

 

[Harris hawker]

Just too cool, is it hard to get them to come to the trap if they see it and the bait? You need a video cam on the trap.

Been wanting too.

It's nerve racking cause you are driving and slowing down to throw the trap out of the car. Don't want to damage the gopro.

 

[Itsazonik]

Oh I'm sure the gopro can take it. Mine fell off my bike at 120 and survived

 

[Ratdog68]

Before watching... I was gonna ask how you avoid being the victim of a toxic dump. I guess you don't. LOL

 

[Harris hawker]

Just an update.
I was given Logan back, the little guy in the original post.
But that doesn't mean I still can go trapping.
I trapped this guy about 730 tonight.
But the back story is kind of heart wrenching.
We traveled down a road earlier in the day and didn't see anything. So we were heading back and were basically back tracking in hopes of finding a bird.
Well we did.
As we pulled over to get the traps ready a truck was traveling toward us.
As it got closer a couple of hawks took off from the road.
That was unusual. So we drove forward to see why, as we did we saw something that wasn't there an hour earlier.
An adult Harris hawk was killed,hit by a car, the other birds were its kids.
Harris hawks are a family. That means when ones in trouble the rest of the family finds a way to help out.
I have been trapping and seen when one bird in a unit gets trapped the rest of them family goes into panic mode and tries to help out.
I think the kids were trying to get mom out of the road. Very sad to see.
I trapped the kid and I hope to give it a better life.
They say hawks have the intelligence of a 3 to 5 year old.
If my wife had my kids and wound up ran over and dead I would hope someone is compassionate enough to pick my baby up.
I know its a wild animal, but to watch a dead adult be visited by its baby on the side of a road, well it was sad.
As I removed the bird from the trap I promised the mother I would do my best with him.
Hope to not let her down.

 

[Ratdog68]

Fine lookin' bird there. Last time home, I was sitting in the parking lot of the store... getting ready to leave and saw a raptor flying around above the parking lot. I don't think it was a red tail... I was wondering whether it was a Harris? Similar colorings. Don't know what's "native" to the Seattle area.

 

[Harris hawker]

RD,
No the Harris is native to the Mexican American border. From the tip of south Texas to California.
BUT.....
The snowy owl, and gyr falcon are arctic birds and the occasional gyr or snowy makes its way to Texas.
More than likely it was a swansions hawk.
I have thrown a trap for them cause they look very close in size and coloration.
Unless it was a lost falconry bird.
On a falconry forum someone snapped a pic of a Harris hawk in Montana.
Popular thought was a bird that was unethically released there.
It's actually against the law to release a bird in a state they are not common.

 

[Ratdog68]

Snowys are awesome birds to see in action in their natural environment. I get to see about one a year while at work, usually on the bus ride prior to heading to the island.

I named my late father's little dog for the Snowy Owl... in his language it's "Ukpik" (OOK-pick). The hair from her brows to the bridge of her nose grew towards her nose, and rose in a crest, outlining her eyes... just like an owl's. She was also all white in color (Miniature American Eskimo).