Hawk Attack Caught On Film

[Guest bakes]

found this while i was haveibg gander other day by looks of things iver goshawk or sparrowhawk haveing go at wild dove while someone was not yards from the bird

 

[Guest Gareth Rankin]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiOHAaGNXkM&NR=1

 

[sapper756]

http://www.youtube.c...iOHAaGNXkM&NR=1

 

 

 

watched both clips Gareth, although I hate BOP, you have to respect the skills and ability they havehttp://forum.pigeonbasics.org/public/style_emoticons/default/sad.gif MON THE DOOS

[Guest IB]

found this while i was haveibg gander other day by looks of things iver goshawk or sparrowhawk haveing go at wild dove while someone was not yards from the bird

 

 

Two questions: 1) the clip was over so fast I don't really know what happened. Anyways of slowing a video clip down?

 

2) Did that dove duck and drop to the ground just before the strike - and fly under cover - or was it carried off?

[Guest IB]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiOHAaGNXkM&NR=1

 

 

I posted years back after seeing a similar escape on one of the Discovery programmes, happened so fast impossible to tell what happened till they slowed it down: split second before the strike happened the pigeon just 'stopped' in mid flight - and dropped backwards out of the falcon's strike-path - the falcon shot straight past into thin air.

 

The question I asked at the time was 'how did the pigeon know how to do that? Only guessing but as its said the pigeons ancestors the rock dove lived cheek-by-jowl on same rocky clifftops with the peregrine falcon, avoiding being caught must have become instinctive? Have we trained & bred that instinct out of our birds?

 

Thats why I reckon there is no safety in numbers for pigeons : one-to-one a pigeon has a better chance, as your clip confirms it has almost all-round vision, has the ability to avoid being taken, and on level flight, nothing with wings will ever catch it.

[Guest bakes]

Two questions: 1) the clip was over so fast I don't really know what happened. Anyways of slowing a video clip down?

 

2) Did that dove duck and drop to the ground just before the strike - and fly under cover - or was it carried off?

 

to be fair i had to watch it back a few times from what i can see by looks of things its a collard doves and when the hawk strikes the dove drops off from were it is perching and manages to a scape flys off hawk end up takeing feathers from bird proberly the tail feathers ive tryed to see if there is anyway i could slow it down but not been able to find a way to do so.

 

all best.

[billt]

I'm sure IB is right regarding our birds losing their natural self preservation abilities, my birds have been on open loft for over 20yrs. and my losses are the lowest they have ever been, had a male Gos had 4 in 9 days early in the year, had to show him the red card, seen my birds regularly outwit percy including a pair of 2nd. round youngsters that were up on their own having fun when percy arrived, they did the y/bird dink and shot off in different directions percy went on his way never attempted to chase, the pair quickly grouped and flew on for more than an hour, I'd never shut mine up over Winter I'm sure they would come out unfit and easy takings

[geordie1234]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiOHAaGNXkM

[geordie1234]

[geordie1234]

watched both clips Gareth, although I hate BOP, you have to respect the skills and ability they have MON THE DOOS

THE SECOND VIDEO IS AMAZING

[hawked again]

Here's another one. The trap looks very simple.

 

[Guest IB]

Yes saw that one a while back. IMO the commentator is a right tosspot and I wonder how many listeners fell for his throwaway line 'roll(ing) pigeons (rollers?) are the natural prey of hawks & falcons'?

 

Very bad publicity for the clubs involved, and for pigeon fanciers, and once again we're all tarred with the same brush.

[Guest Freebird]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiOHAaGNXkM&feature=related