Cooper, Cooper, Party Pooper!

Well, our little friend has returned several times, now. We've got a positive ID--it is a Cooper's Hawk. Not surprisingly, this is one of several breeds known as a Chicken Hawk... This biggest bummer about the visits is not being able to let the chickens roam freely. Now we must supervise their yard time, and learn to speak [or at least understand] "bird"... On 3 occasions I have observed distinct behavior and vocalization changes in all the other birds, and as such shuttled the girls into their pen... within minutes the hawk has appeared, but always too late. "Cooper", as we've been calling him/her, is also a juvenile, and apparently their first autumn on their own is when they are the hungriest. But there is NO way I'm letting him near my girls. We've got many ideas on hawk-proofing the yard so they can get out more, but with everything else going on right now, it' going to have to wait, unfortunately.

In related news, Foxy Brown started laying eggs a couple weeks ago, prompting me to take a day out of the bathroom remodeling to build an addition to the chicken coop. Now we have two nest boxes, and in fact, Delilah is sitting in it right now, quite possibly laying her first egg...

This is a photo of Foxy's first... it's pretty darn big for a first egg... definitely bigger than Francine's first.

So now I must go check the nestbox... if Delilah has laid an egg, there will be another post soon! :)

Chicken Visitor

Well, it was bound to happen. Counting our block and the one adjacent, we have 4 chicken coops and a total of close to 20 chickens. With all that squawking and strutting about, we were destined to catch the attention of some others.

Yesterday, our visitor swooped low over the yard, sending the girls into a wing-flapping and crowing tizzy. There was the one hiding and another three bumping into one another trying to decide which way to go. Meanwhile, Han went out back and snapped this picture of the tree above our yard:


Cooper's Hawk, the common North American 'Chicken Hawk'

Han shuffled the girls into the coop and shut door. After a short time, she lost sight of the hawk. Today the chickens are just going to have to stay in the run/coop until we think of a way to give them more room without open access to the sky. Bring a little nature into your home and you're bound to get more than you anticipated. However scary for the girls, it is exciting to see wildlife like this inside the city.