[Tweeters] a genuine Skagit Nothern Goshawk!

[stan Kostka lynn Schmidt]

Hi Gary, 

The only times I have ever been able to say with absolute certainty that I was looking at a Gos, it was either eating or attempting to kill a chicken.

Just wanted to mention for the benefit of readers that I do not think a Gos could eat a chicken every day. (unless the chickens are extremely small). However,  it may very well kill a chicken every day if someone or something removes the kill each day. 

Years ago I found a dead and partially eaten chicken in the yard,  so I buried it.  The next day I found another dead chicken,  so I left it where it was.  Next day a Gos came in and fed on it.    The Gos returned to it’s kill every morning for five days,  until there was nothing left of the chicken except bone and feather. 

Long ago, in a world far far away, (another lifetime), my old neighbor Ernie was complaining that a hawk had killed one of his chickens. It was a Gos, and Ernie was threatening to shoot it.  I pleaded with him not to.  I knew the bird was in migration and would not stay around long,  so I told Ernie if he did not harm the Gos,  I would pay him fifty dollars for each chicken he lost.  In the end the Gos only killed one more chicken,  I paid Ernie his fifty dollars,  and he got to watch a Gos eat that chicken over several days.  You know, I think in the end old Ernie gained a new appreciation for wild birds, although he would never ever admit it. 

Stan Kostka
lynnandstan at earthlink.net
Arlington 
  


Subject: a genuine Skagit Nothern Goshawk!
Date: Sun Dec 27 2020 1:23 am
From: garybletsch AT yahoo.com

...I suspect that this Goshawk will stick around, the way one was said to have done on Samish Flats years ago, eating a chicken a day until there were no more left--if I remember the story right...