Hawk Alert!

It starts with the aviary birds making noise, more than usual.

Once alerted, Abby runs to a window to spot the intruder and when she sees it, she barks alerting us to the danger and letting us know that she needs out - NOW - to deal with the unwanted visitor.

It is that time of year when the hawks return to our yard.

We have three aviaries, once very small with parakeets (see picture below with hawk sitting on top), one larger with cockatiels and a pair of pheasants and the third with doves and another pair of pheasants.

With all the small, mealsize birds chirping and calling it is no wonder the hawks find us. It must be very confusing to them to have all those birds within sight but unreachable.

The hawk sits on one of the aviaries or on a nearby branch and try to figure out the situation. I have seen them get on top of the cockatiel aviary where it is wire and jump up and down.

They will also fly at the side of the aviary and try and hit one of the birds. One cockatiel did get hit once, but of course it was on the inside of the aviary and the hawk couldn't get to it and it did recover.

Before the rebuilding of the aviaries several years ago we did have a few holes and a hawk found it's way into the aviary with deadly results. It killed many doves but couldn't find the hole to get back out.

I found it sitting in the aviary and caught it with the net. I shook it up and yelled at it and then turned it loose, sure it would never return to the wild lady's yard. It was back the next morning.

Abby is outside now, patrolling the yard to keep the hawk away.
This photo was taken through the window but shows the tail. I'm not sure if this is a Cooper's Hawk or a Sharp-Shinned Hawk. Here is a link comparing the two. Any experts out there?