So, I walk out to my pond last weeks and guess what. There is a hawk looking in my pond and jumping from rock to rock!!!! Any ideas on how to NOT feed him?
Possible Hawk Problems
- Thread starter 27goldfish
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You'll most likely get some good advice on this. My first impulse is netting. However unless the fish come right over to him I don't see what he can do. After all he's not a heron. I've not had this problem yet so am looking forward to the different responses.
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We have hawks that hang out, smallish ones, they hunt the birds in the back yard. Also any small critter they can find. Never have heard of one taking a fish. Now an eagle that is a different matter, they fish beautifully.
A hawk should not be a problem unless the fish accomodate him. They don't stick thier heads into the water and spear fish like the GBH and Egrets do.
I used to have a sparrow hawk that visited my pond. he would sit on the chair next to the pond and watch. I never lost a fish to this hawk but he was pretty to watch.
Were you able to I.D. the hawk?
I'm kinda thinkin' along the lines of previous posts. Seems unlikely that a hawk is gonna pick up fishing as a hobby.
Could it have been an osprey?? Ospreys are pretty big birds, larger than most hawks but smaller than a bald eagle.
Several years back my wife and I were rehabbing raptors for the state. We got an osprey from a fish hatchery. He'd hurt his wing banging into one of the poles suspending their netting. The wing never healed and we had to put him down a few weeks later, which was heartbreaking.
Ospreys are very nervous birds, not like a red-tailed hawk or some others. The osprey did not like being handled, and wouldn't eat. We finally got him to start eating by filling our bathtub with fish from the hatchery and setting him up on a perch over the tub. A few hours of watching fish swimming around right underneath his beak apparently got him thinking about food, because from then on we were able to stick a fish in front of him and he'd grab it.
But if it was really a hawk you saw, most of our common hawks eat small mammals and snakes, that sort of thing. Voles, field mice, etc. Small hawks like kestrels will take rodents & larger insects like grasshoppers. The accipiters (sharp-shinned, Cooper's, goshawk) hunt birds.
Is it possible the hawk scared a mouse or snake into the rocks around your pond?
I'm kinda thinkin' along the lines of previous posts. Seems unlikely that a hawk is gonna pick up fishing as a hobby.
Could it have been an osprey?? Ospreys are pretty big birds, larger than most hawks but smaller than a bald eagle.
Several years back my wife and I were rehabbing raptors for the state. We got an osprey from a fish hatchery. He'd hurt his wing banging into one of the poles suspending their netting. The wing never healed and we had to put him down a few weeks later, which was heartbreaking.
Ospreys are very nervous birds, not like a red-tailed hawk or some others. The osprey did not like being handled, and wouldn't eat. We finally got him to start eating by filling our bathtub with fish from the hatchery and setting him up on a perch over the tub. A few hours of watching fish swimming around right underneath his beak apparently got him thinking about food, because from then on we were able to stick a fish in front of him and he'd grab it.
But if it was really a hawk you saw, most of our common hawks eat small mammals and snakes, that sort of thing. Voles, field mice, etc. Small hawks like kestrels will take rodents & larger insects like grasshoppers. The accipiters (sharp-shinned, Cooper's, goshawk) hunt birds.
Is it possible the hawk scared a mouse or snake into the rocks around your pond?
I am from down in Indianapolis. The 2 most common hawks we have are the Cooper's Hawk and Redtail Hawks. The Redtail are just slightly smaller than an Eagle. We have 2 Cooper's Hawks that hunt the yard all the time. They sure love the Sparrows. They are decent size, 14" or so tall. But they never touch the Koi. Did yours look anything like this guy. It is a Cooper's Hawk.
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I have the cooper hawks as well and this year they nested right over the pond. Never lost a fish and they really like to hang around the waters edge. They are actually really good to have around because when they are around the herons will not be.
Airic said:
Now that makes sense.
Some hummingbirds consider cooper hawks such good neighbors that they will build their nests nearby. Seems that the cooper hawk hunts the predators of the hummingbird but not the hummingbird.
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Pondmaster said:
Neat never knew that, I am filling our feeders every day right now. Fun to watch them dive bomb each other for feeding rights.
The cooper hawk looks like what we have hanging around here, we have a mated pair back in our woods.
