Not on MY watch, Mister!

[farmchix]

He got Rod Stewart's widow last week.  She was a beautiful chicken.  He tried to get more this weekend.  Letting them clean up the garden has proven problematic!

[Woodpecker]

We have a lot of hawks and osprey here. One day my daughter and I were outside with her pet chicken, Loretta. Three osprey started to circle our yard and get closer and closer to the ground. My daughter scooped up Loretta quickly and put her back in the coop. They are really aggressive. I had no idea. We were sitting very close to Loretta, that didn't seem to bother the osprey at all. I'm sorry for the loss of Rod's widow farmchix,

[here to stay]

You should see the set up that the fish hatchery had to keep birds from preying on their stock. Eventually they ended up running wire in close zig zags on posts surrounding the tanks so nothing could fly down.

I wonder if you did the same with string on step in plastic posts whether that would work in your garden?

It's hard to protect stock and plants from wildlife. No matter how beautiful that wildlife is, it is also voracious.

[Deleted]

Nice photos!!

[farmchix]

The garden area is around an acre. We are considering doing the netting the same way a local blueberry farm does it. We have watched him, as a juvenile, come down and sit on their water jugs. The roosters would surround him and "dare" him to come on down. He finally accepted the dare. I went out with the camera and snapped pics, which spooked him. That's one shot he isn't protected from - the camera lens!

[Mari-in-IN]

Sorry about your loss - that bites...  Although it is a beautiful bird and you took some nice pics farmchix !
Is it perhaps a Golden Eagle?

ETA - I've had problems with hawks in the past during the winter months.  Unfortunately, since they are protected, there's not much you can do...  I tend to let my birds only spend outside time in their covered pens unless I'm out there to supervise - then I'll let them out to free range...
Good luck!
~Mari

[mzgarden]

Wow, pretty bird, even if he is a problem for your other birds. Sorry you've lost some to them.

[farmchix]

The pictures are majestic. I got a bunch. Every time he came around, I started snapping pics to scare him off.

We used to just keep the chickens in the covered run until we got home. We know most predators can't get into the garden, but the hawks still can. Another project for the list.

[gracielagata]

Ospreys: My step dad was taking his adult German Shepherd and a beagle puppy for a walk in the wooded/open area behind their houses. We live in a very rural area, so all sorts of critters out here; ospreys and eagles have various nests nearby, etc.

Evidently their new-to-them/just-showed-up kitten came with him and the dogs. My cats go hiking and trail riding with us, so I guess he figured all would be fine for the little guy as well.

He said the osprey started attacking him out of nowhere. He thinks it was going after the beagle puppy and not the kitten, who it sent up into a tree, but who knows.

The only way he got it to stop attacking was to, ahem, take his walking stick to it. He didn't try to kill it, just sort of break its desires and hold it down enough to get his animals away.
He showed me the photos, it was crazy! He said it was back up near its nest a few days later when he went hiking back there again, sans small animals, of course.

I am more inclined to think they got to close to the nest and it went after the easiest thing it could in defense.

Anyhoo.... Predator birds on our own stock and pets are horrible. I lost my most favorite hen to what we think was a great horned owl by the wing marks it left in the snow. She was 3 or so, had been half blind since near hatching, so I suppose it would have likely happened eventually, but that doesn't make it better.

[bergere]

Feel your pain with the Eagles.... got to the point here, I had to net the bantam pens. Some times just sitting outside can get them to move on for awhile.