Good grackle hunting buddy.

[Alan]

He gets his share of the grackle kills.  I just wish he didn't leave a mess behind for me to clean up.

[PeakChick]

Very cool! The best use I've seen for a Grackle yet.

[shadow]

Cool! and the best huntin buddy to have. Ed

[Alan]

Thanks.  The hawk gets more frequent grackle kills than I do, but he tries not to look too smug over his success when he catches me watching him.   The grackles have become cautious and if they see me with a rifle in my hand they depart the area in a hurry.  But if I go out to mow the lawn I've got half a dozen grackles landing less than 10 feet from me grabbing material off the lawn to build their nests with and they aren't the least bit afraid.  I need to find a holster the right size to hold my old Crosman 1377 Classic so I can strap it to the push mower handle bar, that would give the grackles a rude surprise.

[sport71]

Alan, it all gets started with an idea....I need to buy me one of those crossman with a holster, because every time I cut the grass I get the same results. Only down here we got big ugly black crows.

[tat2dman]

What a majestic bird......... 8) Very cool.....

[only1harry]

That's awesome!  What kind of hawk is that?  It looks too big for a sparrow hawk.  There are so many kinds.. it's definitely one of the bigger ones that kills crows too.  

I know what you mean about the Grackles being very cautious.  They can be 30+yds away, and as soon as I show at a window or begin to pull the blinds up, they 're gone.  Today I got lucky and had a good stalk though ;)

[Alan]

The grackles here are also careless when they come in to steal dog food and drink/foul the dog water bucket.  Now if I get a chance I'll sit out on the porch early in the morning with a rifle and drop any that try to land and walk up to the food and water bowls that are about 30 feet away from me. I'm situated higher than where they are landing so if I miss the pellet will go straight into the ground.  It's not quite a deer corn feeder off in the distance to bring deer into an area and me sitting in tree stand during deer season, but it'll do for practice.

[Alan]

It looks kind of like a Cooper's Hawk or Broad-Wing Hawk, and the Cooper's Hawk supposedly specializes in eating other birds so Grackles might be on it's menu.

 http://www.birds.cornell.edu/AllAboutBirds/BirdGuide/Coopers_Hawk.html

[Skip]

Thats some great pictures you caught thereI have a couple hawks working my area too. I wish I could get pictures as nice as those.  Skip

[gamo2hammerli]

Very cool pics of the hawk.  Now you've to train it to come land on your arm.....  And yeah....after nailing 6 birds in two days....I've not seen any birds land in my backyard in the last two days.  I'm sure a few still land there....but not as often as before.

[gunsup0331]

IS that a peregrine?
 very cool in deed.  True Avian Predators