Thursday, August 25, 2011

don't mess with that mama!

I wish I had photos of what happened, but I'll take a cue from another blog I read and do a little photoshopping to help you imagine what I saw!

I had just gotten out of the pool yesterday morning, following a hot 3 mile walk with Angus, and was sitting in the back yard sunning my toes when I heard the chickens go on "full alert" and saw a Cooper's Hawk land on the corral fence where the chickens and ducks hang out. Eeek, the babies!


Angus and I made a hasty beeline for the back gate and ran out to the barn, and as I got closer the hawk took off and flew toward the yard, and I was grateful to see there was nothing clutched in its talons. I love raptors, for the most part, but I really hate Cooper's Hawks... So I watched it fly in front of me, maybe just 8 or 10 feet off the ground, and Angus barked at it.


And then I realized there was another bird hot on its heels, just a few feet behind and a few feet lower but moving right a long. What the heck? I did a double take, probably a triple take, it just didn't register at first what on earth was chasing the hawk...


Holy crap! It was the mama hen! I have seen these little hens go to extremes to protect their babies, (attacking cats, screaming up at hawks that land on coops when birds are enclosed) but I have NEVER seen a hen chase a hawk on the wing. I was absolutely blown away. Don't mess with a mama hen!


11 comments:

brokenfeather said...

LOL
What a great post!
Whoever decided to call a cowardly person a "chicken" had no concept of the true nature of these little rascals we raise!
Aaron

Ellie said...

Haha! I never have seen the hens fly after them, either!! Too cool. Gotta love it!

chickensforeggs@gmail.com said...

Wow! It made my heart pound just reading it - I am glad the babies are ok, and YOU GO, MAMA! :-)

Mike Plumer said...

Great post!! Wild chickens all over Kauai, mostly descendants of fighting chickens released in Hurricane Iniki in 1992 (so the story goes). Mamas raise broods of 5-13 all over the place right out in the open and never seem to lose any to feral cats or dogs. No raptors, no other major predator (except cars). People pretty much don't mess with these mamas either.

Katherine Plumer said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Katherine Plumer said...

And she's totally sweet to me! She'll bring the babies up and the whole little family will eat right out of my hand!

Anonymous said...

I love the photoshoping you did! Totally egg-cellent way to tell your chicken tail. -BMc.

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