HAWKS!

This post is very overdue...my apologies to my 3 followers. ;) Anyway, 2 weeks ago my mother-in-law and niece came over to meet the chickens. I usually don't bring them outside in the evening, but there was still some daylight, so we let the chicks out of the brooder. We sat in the backyard around the patio table and a large bird flew over our heads. So large, that it cast a giant shadow over us. We looked up, and there was a huge red-tailed hawk, just perched in my mulberry tree. I watched it as it stared at my chickens and swooped down towards them! I never thought a hawk would prey like that right in front of me and my family, I mean, there were 5 people, right there! As it swooped down I SCREAMED and he flew off over the back fence and toward the neighbor's yard. It had been just inches away from carrying off one of my little chickies. Part of me is glad that it happened in front of my daughter, I had explained to her that losing a chicken to a predator is a possibility, but now that she actually saw a hawk swoop down, I think she really makes the connection and understands that it CAN happen. After the whole hawk incident I have been pretty nervous about letting the chickens out in the backyard all alone, but over the past 2 weeks I have realized that they are pretty smart, and instinctually hide when something is hovering over them. They have been spending a lot of time in a forsythia bush and behind my rose bushes. This weekend we left them in the backyard while we ran an errand and as we were driving back to the house I saw a hawk circling near our block. I was pretty freaked out, but as I walked in the backyard I could see them all huddled underneath the table. I was so relieved!