The Omen

HawkDad said:
Hmmm, I thought it looked like a red tailed hawk... my bad? :confused:
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I am not an expert by any means and with out seeing the full tail it's hard to know. In the picture you can see a little bit of the bottom of the tail has white and brown banding which would be a locust eater not red tail.

You are right though the red tails are one of the causes of pheasant population decline.
 
imported_ankle23 said:
juvenile cooper's hawk picture:

coohawJuv2DavidSmithPre08Sm.jpg
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I think you are right it is a Cooper Hawk, after more digging they too have the banding on the tail. On a locust eater they have a more solid brown chest. Also the Cooper Hawk would be more common due to the fact they live here year round. Locust eaters only come into the western part of the state sometimes.


Fun Facts about the Cooper Hawk:

It captures a bird (cardinals mostly unconfirmed) with its feet, and will squeeze it repeatedly to kill it, instead of biting the prey to kill it in the fashion of falcons. It has also been known to drown its prey.

A group of hawks has many collective nouns, including a "boil", "knot", "spiraling", "stream", "tower" and "swarm (newly added and unconfirmed)" of hawks.

The animal spirt of Nile Kinnick most prestigious Iowa Hawkeye football player. Is a sign of good fortune when spotted during or just before football season.

Eyes are red. Tail is long with thick black-and-white bands. Sexes are similar. Juvenile has brown back, brown-streaked underparts, and yellow eyes.
 
imported_blkngldFRO said:
I am not an expert by any means and with out seeing the full tail it's hard to know. In the picture you can see a little bit of the bottom of the tail has white and brown banding which would be a locust eater not red tail.

You are right though the red tails are one of the causes of pheasant population decline.
Click to expand...

cooper's hawks have tail banding. red tailed hawks are huge compared to the other two in this discussion, and the breast would be predominately white, with a few brown flecks. i know an ornithologist, i'll forward the picture to him for identification.

but to blame red tailed hawks on the pheasant decline is absurd. plenty of hawks back in 1995, right? ethanol is the one word for your answer. if the amount of cover a pheasant has to hide in is reduced by a very large percent, then yes, a hawk, or a fox definitely knows where to find prey. the bulldozer, the farmers' best friend since 2005.
 
imported_ankle23 said:
cooper's hawks have tail banding. red tailed hawks are huge compared to the other two in this discussion, and the breast would be predominately white, with a few brown flecks. i know an ornithologist, i'll forward the picture to him for identification.

but to blame red tailed hawks on the pheasant decline is absurd. plenty of hawks back in 1995, right? ethanol is the one word for your answer. if the amount of cover a pheasant has to hide in is reduced by a very large percent, then yes, a hawk, or a fox definitely knows where to find prey. the bulldozer, the farmers' best friend since 2005.
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No not really.
Redtails are thriving, pheasants are ridiculously easy prey for them...
Also, the weather we had the last couple Springs, not counting this one, has been pretty hard on them.
 
aeischeid said:
No not really.
Redtails are thriving, pheasants are ridiculously easy prey for them...
Also, the weather we had the last couple Springs, not counting this one, has been pretty hard on them.
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red tailed hawks didn't thrive back in 1995, when iowa set the all-time pheasant harvest in both your and my lifetimes? the floods of 1993 didn't happen? it didn't snow, either?

please, what is the only difference between then and now. hint: the 10 year program started in 1985. it's hard to beat the weather and predators without a place to live. and that is an easy test to make. are you saying there are no red tailed hawks around the spencer area today? plenty of cover, and way more pheasants there than the rest of plowed up, cut down, drained out iowa.

truth be told is that it seems like there are more red tailed hawks because it is way easier to see them. (congregated along roads, where the majority of grassland cover exists, today).
 
STILLBUSTER said:
At the risk of going off-topic ...
I tend to agree with your last claim / observation (there is a lot of "stupid" in the species that would serve all of us well to be thinned from the herd). You're first is simply pointing blame in the wrong direction. Man didn't decide this ... GOD did.

Genesis 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
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awesome
hey look, I can quote fiction/fantasy sources, too!

jesusonaraptor.jpg
 
I didn't say anything wrong.
Sorry, but yeah.....
Redtails are affecting the population.
The weather has affected them more than anything though lately...
Cover doesn't mean **** when it's too cold and wet to reproduce.
 
aeischeid said:
I didn't say anything wrong.
Sorry, but yeah.....
Redtails are affecting the population.
The weather has affected them more than anything though lately...
Cover doesn't mean **** when it's too cold and wet to reproduce.
Click to expand...

Cold can affect reproduction but I will be hones, I have never heard of it being to wet to reproduce. Sounds like optimal conditions.
 
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aeischeid said:
The weather has affected them more than anything though lately... Cover doesn't mean **** when it's too cold and wet to reproduce.
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And yet, we've had 2 boys whilst living in Seattle.

We do have the lowest % of children of any major metro, however.
 
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