I am really curious about the circumstances where everyone is getting attacked by birds of prey. I fly my birds every day all year and rarely loose a bird to a hawk. I loose more to busted up young bird kits staying out overnight or overflys. I do however fly my FOR's every day prior to flying any other breed. I have BR's, Fireballs, and Galati's. I keep a minimum of two "Hawk kits" in my box at all times. These are three bird FOR kits that are at least a year old and have survived many BOP attacks. They are virtually hawk proof. I live in North Florida in the woods surrounded by one hundred thousand acres of timberland and I fly out of a mobile kit box. I also only fly in clear cuts so the birds can have at least a hundred yards of unobstructed view all around. I see at least one hawk every time I fly and sometimes five or six. I have had them chase my Orientals for two or three minutes and light in a tree and just watch as I fly two or three more kits. I am flying five kits at the moment and hope to compete in the next year when I have a hold over kit to fly. I have deduced that most of the people that are having bad BOP problems are living in populated areas with houses and people around and that the hawks are conditioned not to have a fear of humans. Mine will not attack my birds on the box if I can maintain eye contact and place myself between them and the box. All comments are welcomed.
Thanks Sippi
Last Edited by on Feb 16, 2008 7:14 PM
Hi Sippi; Flying only 3 birds at one time is not so prone to invite BOP attacks. However, flying 20 or more at once is a big attraction to predators. I find the best way to avoid tempting them is to choose my time of flying carefully. I, too, often encounter hawks without incidents but the safest way is to not put my birds in harm's way. Al
