Sling your hawk

[hughnique]

As we know yesterday was a traditional prank day, so tail end of the news we have a tale of a hawk attacking people in Flamstead, mainly elderly gents who are left with blood running down their faces after being dived bombed by said bird. They never said what species this bird of prey was, and in a couple of shots you could clearly see the leather jessies on it's legs, so if it is to be believed it has escaped from a falconers care somewhere, but a falconer was actually drafted in and failed to catch the bird, I would have thought that given the training this bird has probably had it should be relatively easy to capture it. But then is it for real??

[Blaze]

This is an old story, from the beginning of March !
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqx0z8rv7n7o

[hughnique]

Well it names the species on your link Blaze, thought to be a Harris Hawk, supposedly native to America, so a good chance it is an escapee, and probably a valuable item.

[Blaze]

The Harris's hawk (Buse de Harris) isn't too unusual here in France : people use them to catch small animals and birds and you can see them with other birds of prey at various places. There's someone near Parçay whose daughter has a couple which she uses for displays etc. I used to watch her training them - beautiful birds. Yes, they have a certain value !

[manonthemoon2]

I have a sick sense of humour because I can't believe bald men in this village actually go outside without hats on.

This chap, bless him, really caught the claw end

[Polly]

The Harris hawk was caught at last by…………… a Mr Harris!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clywdlyv4p3o

[Blaze]

Good news for the villagers but also for the hawk. The incidents seem not to have been treated very seriously so I was surprised that one of the villagers suggested it might have to be euthanised if it carried on with its attacks. All birds of prey are protected in the UK and for some reason no-one wanted to take the responsibility of catching it (out of their juridiction .....).
I wonder why it liked bald men ....

[exile]

Are all birds of prey protected or just the indigenous species? Genuine question and one that I cannot quite square at the moment.
A quick look at the Wildlife Protection Act suggests that wild birds are protected but this would not appear to be a wild bird in what I would understand as the meaning of the act.

[Polly]

On a similar note - take care if you visit the Farne Islands! On Inner Farne Island the thousands of terns nesting in spring are very vigilant about their nests and young, and have attacked people much more often in recent years, even when they weren’t anywhere near nests! Paths are carefully marked so that people walk near the nests, but don’t touch them.

I took photos of my husband being attacked on his head about 40 years ago and we have experienced terns being much more aggressive on visits in the years since then. I suggest wearing a hat as protection, but on that first visit with our family I used my bag. I’ve seen people wounded despite wearing woolly hats - the terns pecked right through them.

On our last visit several years ago people were cowering in St Cuthbert’s chapel, as terns were dive-bombing people as they left! It’s not bad enough to put people off visiting - not me, anyway - if I think I’d be able to get in and out of the boat now!

[Blaze]

Are all birds of prey protected or just the indigenous species?

Interesting one. Harris's hawks are not indigenous nor have they adapted to the wild in the UK and any seen will have escaped captivity. It would seem then that if harm came to a Harris's Hawk, the owner could make a complaint as one might for a pet or for livestock.

https://protectthewild.org.uk/protector ... d-the-law/
(not a government website but very informative)

Birds of prey are widely persecuted on shooting estates (and on some farms) but all species are protected by the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981