Floating on the Susquehanna this past Monday my son and I heard this really raspy sound that was sort of crow like but really gravely deep and like someone with laryngitis. After a while the bird making this sound flew down river a bit and sure enough it was a very big Crow. Another one started with the same raspy call and flew out from the trees so we saw both birds. We saw and heard lots of other crows calling as you would expect but these two sounded very different. Were they actually crows? As I listened to them I thought that if I made a call like that on a hand call I probably would toss that caller out. I hope that means that I do not need to be so harsh on myself when I make a not so perfect call on my hand callers.
Secondly, in town I saw two crows flying around a hawk. The hawk was darting and twisting while trying to get away from the crows. I really wondered why the hawk did not twist and sink its talons into one those crows and be done with them. Has anyone ever seen a hawk go on the offensive against a crow and why would a bird built for killing things be so afraid of a crow?
Secondly, in town I saw two crows flying around a hawk. The hawk was darting and twisting while trying to get away from the crows. I really wondered why the hawk did not twist and sink its talons into one those crows and be done with them. Has anyone ever seen a hawk go on the offensive against a crow and why would a bird built for killing things be so afraid of a crow?
See the same thing around here, except that it's a step down, with two or three (or even one) grackles attacking a single crow. Probably because the crow just got caught stealing eggs or young.
Can't explain the hawk behavior.
__________________
"Arms are the only true badges of liberty. The possession of arms is the distinction of a free man from a slave." -- Andrew Fletcher 1698
Definitely a pair of ravens. I've had a pair near me, too, up here in the Finger Lakes area. Pretty cool birds, and protected. Their call is a really deep, drawn out "gronk" I call it.
I believe that the redtail hawks are merely annoyed by the crows who chase them off, and don't have any interest in taking them out in that situation. They will definitely attack a wounded crow, or check out your decoys and wounded crow call, but they just wander off when a few crows send one in to nip at their tail.
Crows are natured much like a Chicago gutter-rat, thug. We have some of those in politics in Washington, D.C. They love to travel in packs, because they are ignorant, useless, bullying cowards. The hawk, of most any species, is more like a distinguished, educated, citizen. Crows will seemingly attack a hawk, but are smart enough to maintain their distance from the hawks talons. It's kinda like a distinguished man walking down a street with a .44 Magnum in each hand (the hawk), while being heckled by cowardly gutter-rat thugs (the crows). The thugs will get close, but not close enough to test the resolve of the man with the .44's. The hawk seems to be just annoyed by the crows, knowing that they are cowards, and goes about his business.
I believe it was Abe Lincoln, whom was once confronted by a man of disparage. The man, obviously not a fan of Lincoln, said " I always ask a fool to step aside and let me pass". Abe replied, " And I always step aside and let one pass". Maybe that's the crux of the hawk and crow!
I believe you saw a pair of "married" (i.e., mated for life male and female) ravens. I've heard they are more vocal than ordinary crows, and have a wider range of "language".
As for the hawk and two crows, the hawk exists with the certainty that he is almost always outnumbered. Two crows may not be able to kill a hawk, but they can injure it. An injured hawk may face starvation, victim of predation, or both. He can't afford to risk an injury, and the nasty, gut eating, filth wallowing crows know it. I like KenCrow's comparison above, and he illustrates a universal truth for humans and hawks.
__________________
"When you have shot one bird flying, you have shot all bird's flying. ...the sensation is the same, and the last one is as good as the first." E. Hemingway "Fathers and Sons"
Thanks, did not think that there were Ravens around NE PA. They were a very large bird so I wondered if they might be a raven but did not think they were around my area. I have seen little birds chasing bigger birds before and always wonder how often the Big one had enough and turns on them.
Have lots of raven here too, and lots of carrion crow, rook, and jackdaw. What we now have too is a sort of hybrid, twice the size of a carrion, but smaller than a raven, and calls like a carrion. Really wierd, and they turn up in flocks of 30-40 a time, whereas ravens are usually solitary or in pairs here
But don't know whether they are allowed to be shot or not, so leaving them at the moment.
Annoying as the take lots of songbird eggs and young too
__________________
If it moves and is legal but also moral, SHOOT IT !!
Hawks regularly attack crows when they can ...when you might see migrating crows attacking a hawk it is outnumbered and in danger. that crow bill packs one serious wallop. It is dangerous to be hawk with a crow above you. The soaring hawks cannot out fly a crow at all but they have manuverability similiar to the faster crow so they use that. It is no game at all. I have seen videos of a huge red tail eating a crows' nestlings and the crows unable to do much about it except harass mercilessly. But they have to be careful or become lunch instead of their nestlings!
One or two crows will not mix it up with the northern blue/gray(the males) or the larger females(brown) goshawks. However with the numbers they will not hesitate. It is still a dangerous game however. The same is true of the increasingly rare and now endangered Coopers'hawk-either sexes; unless they have the numbers -say-half a dozen or more. Certainly not in the air where the speed clearly favors the faster accipiter hawks (Goshawk and Coopers') And no crow wants to tangle with the peregrine falcon commonly known as a "duck hawk"...not when the duck hawk can out fly the crow with a dive of close to two hundred miles per hour!
No question you are hearing Ravens and in most Northern areas illegal to shoot and clearly distinguishable from the crow with the shaggy throat and roman nose(bill) and huge wedge shaped tail and tend to soar a lot more. I heard one sounding like a baby crying once-you can imagine my surprise to see what it was in the woods!
Another item here; a group of ravens operate like this...the scout will come in fairly low to draw out any crows so the others up higher can get away if the crows are around and won't get beat up -a crow attacking a Raven looks exactly like crows attacking a hawk-that raven has a little advantage as he can see behind him not eyes forward like a hawk!
ravens here will try to attack a crows' nest but crows will have sometimes have a rookery of several nests or more (thusly that large group of crows you see in August in the north-used to be a hundred crows so that meant for me about 30 nests together) before the farms all dried up around here and they are staying further north now of me and any raven or any hawk could not get any eggs or nestlings at that rate.
That hawk values his eyesight more than a meal, Crows go for the eyes on birds of prey. They always attack from above and always go for the eyes. You would be surprised how many they injure. A one eyed hawk will starve to death, They may as well be blind.........