Ali-Frazier; Celtics-Lakers; Yankees-Red Sox; Aggies-Longhorns. I am adding another to the list of great face-offs: Kroenke-Cooper's.
I had an enjoyable four hour visit with Steve this past Saturday. His colony is about 90 miles away from Jacksonville, TX so it was just a short drive to go see him and the numerous birds at his colony.
While there I witnessed what Steve has alluded to many times in his posts, and that is the frequency of Cooper's Hawk attacks. There were four attacks by these hawks while I was there with two of those being successful in catching a fledgling. The other two attacks were unsuccesful because Steve was able to scare them away.
As most of ya'll know, Steve is retired and tends to his colony from dawn to dusk. I must say, he is just as determined to scare away hawks as they are to attack. It is a face-off comparable to those on the aforementioned list. He refers to his colony as a buffet for hawks and I see why. Steve is at a distinct disadvantage with so many birds feeding and flying over so vast an area but he does the best he can.
So hats off to Steve and his persistence in protecting as many martins as possible from the feathered grim reaper.
Kenneth
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Steve Kroenke vs Cooper's Hawk
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Steve Kroenke
- Posts: 4342
- Joined: Fri Nov 28, 2003 6:49 pm
- Location: Louisiana/Logansport
Hey Kenneth,
I really enjoyed your visit last Saturday though the Cooper's hawks did try to spoil things!
About an hour before you arrived, the male Cooper's hawk tried to make an attack from the southwest and I managed to intercept him and scare him away.
Sunday and Monday, there were multiple Cooper's hawk visits and I managed to keep all the hawks from directly entering the colonies. However, the hawks still are able to catch the fledglings in the area where we witnessed the Saturday attacks. This location is several hundred yards to the south of my colony and I have no control over the area. The hawks caught at least 6 fledglings that I observed during those days. Today, a mature male Cooper's hawk tried to be bold and actually landed in a tree across the road from my colony. A huge swarm of screaming martins circled the tree and I managed to frighten him away. However, he returned at around 12:10 today and caught a fledging in that same terrible place where new martins keep taking their babies. The parent martins that have already lost babies there avoid this slaughter pit.
We are losing on average 3 to 5 fledglings a day to the hawks and that is just observed attacks within several hundreds yards of our colonies. I am sure other purple martin familes are being attacked in unobserved places within a mile or two of our sites.
The martins have almost no safe place they can assemble their fledglings now except for our yards. We have large groups of fledglings in small trees in our yards and adjacent utility lines. As long as I am there, these locations are safe. But the hawks are always watching and biding their time. All the best locations in isolated trees in cow pastures or dead trees have been virtually destroyed by the constant attacks by Cooper's hawks. I am seeing considerable stress among the parent martins and they are bringing their babies back to the colony all during the day in an apparent attempt to get them inside the nests. This creates all kinds of problems as the fledglings get scattered around and are attacked by other martins, particularly SY males.
We still have many martins to fledge their young in the next week or so and the Cooper's hawks will be ready. You saw the huge flocks of screaming martins as they hopelessly mobbed these hawks. No matter how much the martins attack, the hawks know it is bluff and they ignore the mobbing.
I am ready for this martin season to end.
Steve
I really enjoyed your visit last Saturday though the Cooper's hawks did try to spoil things!
About an hour before you arrived, the male Cooper's hawk tried to make an attack from the southwest and I managed to intercept him and scare him away.
Sunday and Monday, there were multiple Cooper's hawk visits and I managed to keep all the hawks from directly entering the colonies. However, the hawks still are able to catch the fledglings in the area where we witnessed the Saturday attacks. This location is several hundred yards to the south of my colony and I have no control over the area. The hawks caught at least 6 fledglings that I observed during those days. Today, a mature male Cooper's hawk tried to be bold and actually landed in a tree across the road from my colony. A huge swarm of screaming martins circled the tree and I managed to frighten him away. However, he returned at around 12:10 today and caught a fledging in that same terrible place where new martins keep taking their babies. The parent martins that have already lost babies there avoid this slaughter pit.
We are losing on average 3 to 5 fledglings a day to the hawks and that is just observed attacks within several hundreds yards of our colonies. I am sure other purple martin familes are being attacked in unobserved places within a mile or two of our sites.
The martins have almost no safe place they can assemble their fledglings now except for our yards. We have large groups of fledglings in small trees in our yards and adjacent utility lines. As long as I am there, these locations are safe. But the hawks are always watching and biding their time. All the best locations in isolated trees in cow pastures or dead trees have been virtually destroyed by the constant attacks by Cooper's hawks. I am seeing considerable stress among the parent martins and they are bringing their babies back to the colony all during the day in an apparent attempt to get them inside the nests. This creates all kinds of problems as the fledglings get scattered around and are attacked by other martins, particularly SY males.
We still have many martins to fledge their young in the next week or so and the Cooper's hawks will be ready. You saw the huge flocks of screaming martins as they hopelessly mobbed these hawks. No matter how much the martins attack, the hawks know it is bluff and they ignore the mobbing.
I am ready for this martin season to end.
Steve
Last edited by Steve Kroenke on Tue Jun 19, 2007 1:11 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Kenneth Hicks
- Posts: 74
- Joined: Thu May 19, 2005 8:50 am
- Location: Texas/Jacksonville
Steve,
While out mowing yesterday evening I noticed a hawk on two separate occasions. I am not sure if it was a Cooper's Hawk or another species of larger hawks that nest nearby. Whatever it was the martins took out after it in the same manner that your birds do. I will be more attentive from now on in regards to this hawk and see if I can determine what kind it is.
Kenneth
While out mowing yesterday evening I noticed a hawk on two separate occasions. I am not sure if it was a Cooper's Hawk or another species of larger hawks that nest nearby. Whatever it was the martins took out after it in the same manner that your birds do. I will be more attentive from now on in regards to this hawk and see if I can determine what kind it is.
Kenneth