Darn Hawks!!!

[Lin Hansen]

I believe they show it on TNT for 24 hours straight. It's a GREAT Christmas movie.....we watch it every year too!

Linda

[Maggie-NC]

We watch it every year too. I just love little Randy. The scenes with him eating the mashed potatos and sitting in the cabinet telling his mom that "Daddy is going to kill Ralphie" just crack me up.

[AZWhitefeather]

The movie is an absolute classic.
For us, 'A Christmas Story' sets off the holidays.
Sean knows every line in that movie, & has for many years.

Gotta love the 'Electric Sex' scene. One of my favorite lines is, "Oh my god, I shot my eye out".

It's a must see Renee. In addition to being on TV throughout the holiday season, it's available on video or DVD.

Cindy

[TAWhatley]

My husband will be there glued to the TV for the entire pre, actual, and post game shows. He is a TOTAL die hard Cowboys fan .. then there's the Alabama (Crimson Tide .. Rolltide!) team too .. football season is a real hoot around here .. he gives a serious hoot, and I don't give a hoot at all .. I might watch the Denver Broncos once in a season, but that's about it for me.

So, never fear .. your Cowboys are covered from here!

Terry

[Garye]

Pigeons are smart enough to figure out that the plastic Great Horned Owls that they put up around the casinos and hotels are not alive. One of the funniest things I've ever seen was two pigeons roosting on top of a big plastic GHO (one on each of the owls ears) above the entance way of one of the big casinos up here.

Yep, someone put out a plastic owl where my feral flock hangs out. Garye and the other pigeons roost near it, fly around it, and generally land on it like it's some kind of roosting spot. Then they spotted the plastic spikes put out on one of the store signs. Now Garye and the other pigeons take to using them as roosting spots. It was like they were thinking, "Gee, they put this stuff out for us. How nice! These things are better than roosting on the parking lot lights. We can see everything better now."

I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw Garye perched on one of those plastic spikes, just clinging to it. They somehow found a way to get on those things without harming themselves. And it's the only store sign they hang on to! They seem to like those spikes.

Yeah, I knew what f'in hawks were too. As a matter-of-fact, when I first read the title to the thread, I kinda laughed at how the hawks were described.

I hate hawks too.

[feralpigeon]

Garye, the 'overpass' pigeons hold on to the plastic spikes w/their feet then use
their wings to get over the top of them. There's not much clearance between the top of the spikes and the bottom of the concrete floor of the overpass. Once behind, I think they feel protected from the world at large.

Today, they were all roosting on a rather large car dealership sign when they
all took off to the sky. Pretty soon they were splitting up in groups and going in different directions and wouldn't return to the sign. Sure enough, on an iron structure atop a 4 or 5 story building's roof, maybe 50 feet away, a single redtail sat on the grid. It was twitching its' tail and sometimes its' wings in anticipation of a meal, almost the way a cat twitches its' tail. The pigeons stayed in flight for about 15-20 minutes, then a few returned to the sign, but not all. Then one circled around the hawk--not too close--almost as if checking out if it would respond. Nope, this hawk just kept sitting there. It would look over at the ferals from time to time but not move. Then more of the ferals would join in 'zooming' & 'teasing'the hawk. After a while, the hawk sighted something a couple of city blocks away and took off after it. I was pretty impressed w/the ferals today, but while it was all shaking down, I was
worried to death.

fp

Feather, you know they have Fin automobiles also, you know--the kind that
always break down

[Feather]

Oh yes fp, now that you mentioned it, I believe I drove a couple of Fins.

Feather

[feralpigeon]

Originally Posted by Feather

Oh yes fp, now that you mentioned it, I believe I drove a couple of Fins.

Feather

Gosh, Feather, how'd you get your Fin car to start, mine's still sittin' there

fp

[jerseygeorge]

Originally Posted by ZigZagMarquis

I am so mad right now! If I lived way out in the country side, I'd be doin' me some hawk-huntin' right now!!!

You can't swing a dead cat in my neighborhood without hitting a mourning dove of feral pigeon, but my birds, out for an afternoon exercise before dinner just got chased by a hawk! Coopers or Sharp-Shinned.

I almost lost Brownie.

I had let them out. They usually don't fly for long, so I have the feeders ready before letting them out. They were circling and staring to come back down and some had already landed on the roof / loft when I saw them scatter... feathers... and a hawk in pursuit. I yelled and the hawk split around the corner. Brownie was down in the neighbors yard and fluttering around when I looked over the fence. After a quick few, she regained herself, flew up to the roof and then after several more minutes, came in. The others circled way up high for about 15 - 20 minutes, circled back down and quickly trapped in.

I inspected my birds that had been out when they came back in and besides some missing feathers all seem fine; no wounds.

Damn Hawk must live in the area. When ever I get the chance to fly my birds on a more regular basis he shows up. Wish I could go looking for his home, but I guess he could be anywhere within a mile or two radius, at least, I'd guess. I wish he'd learn to go look for dinner elsewhere or learn to eat rocks!!

I have a hawk problem here as well. A hawk killed 6 ferals in 5 days in our yard and our neighbors yard. It is said they are endangered but you would never know it here in South Jersey. I am happy with my decision to keep my birds confined. If I didn't I'm sure most, or all of them would be dead by now.

[Zaise]

Originally Posted by pigeonkid1046

Be fortunate, my grandpa lost one roller per day every other day for 2 weeks. There is a hawk in the area (still) and was taking out his best rollers. I had one get eaten my a hawk, my beautiful bald head check, that performed surpisingly excellent. Another one in my neighbors yard, a dun, that performed, but not as well, and bless her, she is 70 and knows I have pigeons and got up from sitting on her porch and chased it away, it got free because of her. I know how you feel, were all the same way when this happens. They're just trying to live too. Save a pigeon......eat a squirrel. HAHA!

Ack! Don't let my mom hear you say that!!

[bevslape]

Originally Posted by pigeonkid1046

Save a pigeon......eat a squirrel. HAHA!

Zipper is VERY unhappy with you.

[feralpigeon]

Zaise and bevslape,

When I read that post, I immediately thought of The Slapes and Victor, in addition to the many squirrels that I've made friends with at home and work. It's nature, still, hard to choose which of any should suffer. Unfortunately, animals do prey on one another as their survival, hopefully as humans, we wouldn't take a 'glib' approach to their needs and suffering.

fp

[Pigeonpal2002]

Hi Bev & Victor,

Awww, Zipper is so cute! I like squirrels myself, they are so smart! They also are very amusing to watch and incredible acrobats! How old is Zipper now and is he very tame?

[Lin Hansen]

Yes, Bev, I envy you for having Zipper.

I love squirrels myself, love when they come to me on my back porch for peanuts....over the years I've had one or two that will take them out of my hand, and we had one that would actually let us know that he was there and we darned well better hurry up with those peanuts! He would jump from the porch railing to the screen door and hook into the screen and just hang there all spread out, chattering, till he'd see one of us coming....then he'd climb down daintily and sit on the porch waiting for his peanuts. I miss him, he only came around for about a year, a couple of years ago. Something must have happened to him, because he knew us so well and seemed to trust us, so I'm sure if he was still okay, he'd be coming.

Although I love it when they seem to trust us enough to take food from us, I try to avoid allowing that to happen. I always worry that the poor things will think ALL humans like them and will be friendly to them from our example. Which you know can be a fatal mistake for the them.

Linda

[bevslape]

Originally Posted by Pigeonpal2002

Hi Bev & Victor,

Awww, Zipper is so cute! I like squirrels myself, they are so smart! They also are very amusing to watch and incredible acrobats! How old is Zipper now and is he very tame?

Zipper came into our lives it will be 2 years ago in May. My daughter-in-law called us very upset because some kids in her neighborhood were kicking and poking sticks at something. When she went to see what it was... it was a squirrel that had been hit by a car and was trying to crawl away. She took it away from the kids and put it in a pet carrier. It was so weak that it just lay there in the cage. She knew that we had recently rescued a pigeon (Tooter) so we were the only ones she could think of who could help. We knew absolutely nothing about squirrels but decide to try. I looked on the Internet and found a wonderful site for squirrel rehabbers. This person was great. She was one of the few that did not believe that just because a squirrel needed a great amount of medical help that it needed to be "put down".
Zipper cannot walk on her hind legs. She has very strong front legs now and drags her hind legs after her. If I were to make the mistake of setting her loose she would die before the hour was out because we have so many cats running loose in our neighborhood. If she managed to climb a tree she would not be able to jump from tree to tree like others and would die a slow death of starvation. So.....God sent her to me to take care of.
At first I could not tell if Zipper were a boy ro a girl squirrel. She was raw almost to the bone on the underside of the belly and of course her genitialia were scraped to badly it was impossible to tell. After she had beeen with us for about a week she smelled to bad it was horriendus, so I desided to give her a bath. I took her to the tub and put her in warm water and gently wash her all over including her underside. . Every week I would give her a bath until she was pretty well healed...and then I found out it was a girl. By then my daughter Lisa had suggested Zipper as a name because of the way she could zip around the cage even without the use of her hind legs. She still get baths every couple of weeks. She has to be the cleanest squirrel in the world.
She is pretty much a one person squirrel. She will let others reach into her cage to feed and pet her but I am the only person who can handle her to take her from her cage and bathe her. She loves to get old clothes to nest in. Every once in awhile I have to take her nest away (it gets stinky) and she has to start all over again. I try to do cage cleaning at the same time as bathing. She likes to sit in her cage watching the people come and go. We move her cage around to give her a change of scenery. When it is by a window she will let me know the mailman is coming by barking at him.
Zipper sort of became my rescue and all the pigeons are Victors. Aren't we blessed?