White feathers in my back yard, plucked from prey.
Plainfielders who scan the skies may have noticed in recent years what appear to be hawks riding thermals overhead as they scan the ground for a quick meal -- perhaps a field mouse, or an unlucky rabbit, or...
...or something else that isn't as easily identified.
Visiting friends (and Plainfield Today readers) on Hillside Avenue recently, we were startled to discover in the backyard, as I was leaving, a blanket of white feathers and down which had not been there a few minutes before when I arrived.
Looking high up into the tree, we saw more feathers and what looked to be some remains of an unidentifiable bird in the crook of two branches.
Then, this Thursday, a similar patch of feathers appeared in my back yard. I was told that a bird -- a hawk? -- was seen plucking the feathers from some poor creature in my yard and then flying away with the carcass firmly grasped in its talons.
I'm willing to believe the perp is a hawk-like bird like the one whose picture I caught in Green Brook Park this past summer.
This hawk was spotted in Green Brook Park this past summer.
What stumps me is what the prey bird was.
Snow white feathers and down. Not dirty grey like the pigeons that hang a round or ashes-of-roses like the mourning doves that try to eat from my feeder.
White, like the Leghorn chickens of my childhood.
Now, where would a hawk find Leghorn chickens in Plainfield?
That's the mystery.
As kids, we used to look in the barn's hayloft for eggs the Leghorns would lay.
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6 comments:
Dan,
I have seen two hawks this year. The first time was last spring. We drove into our yard on East Ninth St. and the bird was sitting on our fence. It was huge! At first we thought it was a falcon, but research showed it was a hawk. The second encouter was at Carnegie and Third Pl. There were two of them on the ground. One had a squirrel and flew off towards the Cedar Brook farm house. The second followed. I suspected they were nesting in the trees back that way. Suddenly we no longer had a pidgeon problem in our neighborhood. They just vanished.
Bill Garrett
The other day, also on Hillside Avenue, my husband Victor witnessed a hawk (if it's the same one, he's eating well) fly off with an orange and white tabby cat (not ours). Moral of the story, keep your chickens close and your cats closer.
Hi Dan,
I saw some seagulls flying overhead the other morning, maybe that is your mystery bird/dinner. Carrie
Dan - actually there are a good number of chickens in Plainfield not to mentiom the farm on Cushing
Road. also a poultry shop that sometimes has escapees.
I have been seeing the Coopers Hawk and Red tail Hawk for years in Sleepy Hollow. Last year, while filling my feeders, one swooped down and plucked a Mourning Dove off the feeder. It was so fat, the hawk had trouble geting airborne.
Ted Turner, MD
could it have been a white barn owl? I have one on my ranch.
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