We have lots of wild animals around here. Fox, possum, groundhogs, deer, field rats, mice, vultures, snakes …
… to name a few, but today I am going to focus on the hawks.
I have two or three different types that wander through, and occasionally they decide to stay and hunt. The one above, which looks like a Cooper’s Hawk, has been spending almost every day in our meadow looking for rodents. The weather being warmer than normal means the little mice and rats seem to be active in the fields.
Sharp Shin and Cooper’s are the two most common visitors here. When it snows, they love to buzz the feeders and grab mourning doves. Then I get to clean up the mess of feathers in the yard. When the Blue Jays are around, they will chase the hawk, ganging up and flying behind. The jays and the red bellied woodpecker will come up close and eat when there is snow. It does attract the hawks though, and mostly mourning doves seem to fall prey.
They get very brazen too, and decide my patio furniture is a great spot for resting and checking out the scene. They do sometimes perch on the bird bath and get water.
The circle of life here not that far from the cities. The plans we are making to add chickens here need to take into account the natural enemies that also reside in our woods behind the meadow.
AnnieRie Unplugged 
I’m over in Ellicott City – a few years ago when my Welsh Springer Spaniel was a puppy we had a hawk who apparently thought she’d make a tasty meal. I had to really be careful to only take her outside on a leash so I’d be nearby in case the hawk got too close. I made a rukus more than once to try to scare that hawk off.
We have a friend who lives in Dorsey Hall. We used to live in Columbia for 25 years, but moved to the west county to a farmette seven years ago.
At our friend’s house, they had deer, fox, beaver in the wetlands behind their home, but they didn’t have hawks.
They had a Yorkie. Every time they visited us with their Yorkie, we worried about hawk attacks.
I’m close to the HoCo Conservancy, and we see a few hawks here and there as well as turkey vultures. Thankfully neither hang around the yard or neighborhood. I think the neighborhood cats & fox keep the mice/rodent population low.
We go to the Conservancy all the time. The birds there are amazing. I have seen orioles, bluebirds galore, and lots of predators.
I pick up my summer CSA there. The caretaker who lives in the 200 year old farm house manages it.
We have some interesting birds out here because of our huge number of conifers. We are out in west county close to the Glenwood farmer’s market, where we buy Breezy Willow’s veggies in the summer. We lived 30 years in Columbia before moving out here.