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As of Oct 16, 2021, I managed to feed a Red Shouldered Hawk a cooked barbecue rib that was leftovers from Sonny’s BBQ. My grandma said the ribs weren’t tender, and my best guess is it wasn’t cooked long enough. It ended up becoming a meal for a hawk! Imagine that? When I saw the hawk, she was perched on a power line near the intersection of St Mary’s Rd and Kings Bay Rd in St Marys, GA. It was located 2 power poles away from where the train tracks are. I decided to name her Lisa. So I parked my car at the 4th pole and I proceeded to walk towards the hawk. I stayed close to the street and I did a power walk but not a fast run. The hawk stared down at me straight in the eye before I threw the rib, so I can tell she was hungry! When I threw the rib, it landed right in between where the cut grass and the long grass met up with each other. The hawk could almost look straight down at the rib, and I’m sure that she actually did. I continue to walk up to where the train tracks were, then I crossed 4 lanes of the highway until I reached the other side of the road. I walked until I could see my car across from where I was walking. I crossed the street, then I opened the door to walk into the car. As soon as I got inside, the hawk immediately swooped down on the rib. I couldn’t believe what I just saw! I know one thing, she was quite hesitant and waited until she was sure that I wasn’t around before she swooped! I was almost afraid she wasn’t going to swoop down on it, and I was going to drive home to grab some raw steak instead! I was very lucky to find such a hawk that isn’t a picky eater! She should be proud that she can enjoy a human’s meal for a change! I am so happy for her doing that! Now I just have to figure out how to eat a hawk’s meal one of these days! I could just slip a live snake down my throat one of these days. We’ll see!

I know its been so long since my last post, but since I’ve been working at Amazon for 60 hours a week over the past 2 years, it has been impossible to post anything! I’ve been busy looking for hawks every day and I’ve been keeping a thermos filled with ice and raw steak so that I can feed one if I see one! I am completely obsessed in feeding them and I can’t stand it when they fly away from me when trying to feed them. Sometimes, these hawks have flown away as I’ve thrown steak in mid-air or I simply stayed too close to the hawk for more than a minute at a time. I’ve learned to always walk past the hawk in the hopes that the hawk won’t mind waiting for me to give them some food! That’s just what makes my day, and I always feel thankful for being about to have these hawks appreciate me being in their presence!

Make sure you check out my Facebook page. It is https://facebook.com/jeremy.hirzel. If you’re more into YouTube than Facebook, I have a channel there as well. It is https://youtube.com/jthejh. If you enjoy the content, you can check out more of them as I may post every other week or so! I’m not very active because of the fact that I spend an hour or 2 looking for hawks after working a 10 hour shift. Plus, I have a 30 minute unpaid break and 50 minutes of driving time to and from work as well. So I do get quite busy, too busy to even be on this computer anymore. But if you watch my videos, you can learn more so that perhaps you could do the same thing and make a new friend with a hawk!

This is a female adult Red Tailed Hawk named Sara. Sadly she migrated in July, but she’ll be back in February next year. She is my favorite hawk to date and she even allowed me to get within 15 feet from me at times. She even let me lay down directly underneath her while she was perched on a power pole. Sadly, she never looked down at me, and never took any more food from me once I started getting close to this hawk!

After 2 years, I have updated the “Hawks Eating Bread” playlist. So far, I haven’t been able to find any more videos on YouTube of hawks eating bread. However, I am still over-obsessed of this playlist, because I can finally say I can relate to these hawks, since I’ve obviously eaten bread. Live prey on the other hand is something I haven’t tried………….yet! Well, the reason why I have updated this playlist is because a user named @Acadian Birder has finally convinced me that no Accipiter has ever eating bread! The video that is titled “Cooper’s hawk eating bread in Hewitt, NJ” is incorrect. The hawk in that video, which belongs to @Michael Byro is actually a Red Shouldered Hawk. That means every video on that playlist except the one Red Tailed hawk video is a Red Shouldered Hawk. The truth is saddening, but that is okay because I realize that Cooper’s hawks breed more successfully than any other hawk because of their agile speed and small size. They are good at catching birds and won’t even bother stealing food from any birds. If the bird escapes without the food, it’ll simply come back to eat it once the Cooper’s hawk gives up chasing it. So in a way, the winner gets to eat no matter what! That makes me a little happier! Red Shouldered hawks on the other hand chase more than just birds, so that’s why they are more opportunistic. They will eat small mammals, lizards, and small insects as well. They aren’t quite as opportunistic as crows are but they will grab a piece of bread once in a blue moon. I moved the “Cooper’s hawk eating bread in Hewitt, NJ” video in the back of the queue until the title gets changed (if it gets changed that is). If you click on this playlist, you’ll be able to see the sidenote next to the video to clarify that title is incorrect. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLwzIZNZxCcVpLzAG0Sg44vV1t6EpLpH0_

I hit the jackpot on finding hawks today! I saw 4 different raptors, which were a Red Shouldered Hawk, a Red Tailed hawk, a Northern Harrier and a American Kestrel. I saw a Red Shouldered Hawk just a minute after I arrived at the park, which I originally thought was a Cooper’s Hawk. A 2nd Red Shouldered Hawk was actually brought to my attention by a passerby, who showed me a picture on her phone. I ended up stopping the video at that point because I didn’t feel like putting my camera directly in her face. I verified the picture, then I hit the record button once I saw this raptor. Once the passerby left, she walked right underneath the tree where the hawk was and it didn’t even fly away. It flew onto a post that was only 40 feet away from me! I was so surprised how close this raptor got to me! It is the closest any raptor has ever gotten to me to date! It was brilliant seeing it up close and the quality on my camera was superb! After I walked on the trail for 30 minutes, I saw a juvenile Red Tailed Hawk. It was most likely the same hawk I saw on the power pole a while back! I went ahead and took some pictures before I filmed it. Then, it flew over to a post, where I managed to get a closer view of it. It flew away as soon as I walked up the stairs of the observatory. I then saw 2 Northern Harriers flying in the marsh side-by side, so its obvious they were mates. I saw quite some acrobatic displays from them as well. After that, I turned my camera to the other side of the trail and I saw an American Kestrel! Oh my gosh, this day just gets better and better! I was right underneath the tree filming it too!

So far, this was the best hiking day ever! I’ve got over 30 minutes of unedited footage. I kept the camera running even while I was walking to get a better angle. Check it out!

Well, I almost filmed hawks today. It was overcast, so even if I did film any hawks, they would look shadowy. I went to the spot where I would normally eat lunch at, and I saw a Red Tailed hawk fly off from a tree. I didn’t even know it was there. I am not sure if this was the same juvenile Red Tailed hawk that I filmed on a power pole a couple weeks ago. I saw it on a power pole, and I cut through the forest to try to get a better view to film it. However, when I got halfway there, it flew off again. Before it flew off, I squeezed my Red Tailed hawk plush doll to make its Red Tailed hawk call. That may have scared it. I crossed the street, walked along the trail until I was closer but then it flew off a second time! I was persistent and I kept going. The hawk landed on another tree and even though it was 500 feet away I decided to get out my camera and film it. However, it flew off before I could even locate it with my camera! Once it flew off for the 4th time, it flew into the middle of the forest where it was no longer in my sight. I gave up and I continued on. Right at that moment I saw a Northern Harrier hunting in the marsh. I zoomed it in when it landed and ate something in the field. Some weeds were blocking the view so I chose not to record it. It just wasn’t a perfect enough view. I’m just very picky when it comes to filming, and as a result, I didn’t record anything. At least my failures today will make me a better photographer! There’s always next time!

Well, no hawks today, however, I did find 2 crows on a tree next to Rosedale Lake, which was right next to the playground. They were both preening each other. One of them flew to another tree, and its mate soon followed. It caught a worm on a branch, but it dropped it and didn’t bother to pick it back up. I’m sure it was too intimidated by my presence. That’s one reason why I didn’t want to get any closer to those crows.

I said in the video that the crow was feeding its mate, but that is incorrect, they were actually preening each other. One of them preened itself after preening its mate.

I do want to backtrack to a half-hour before I saw those 2 crows. I saw one crow fly over to a tree shortly before I walked past it and it was cawing at me. Unfortunately I didn’t think of recording that.

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I recorded no hawks today unfortunately. About 15 minutes after I arrived at Mercer Meadows, I saw a Red Tailed hawk soaring overhead of the left-side trail near the Hunt House. I got out my camera, and my new monopod that I purchased and attached the camera onto it. I also made my Red Tailed hawk plush doll make its Red Tailed hawk call. Unfortunately, that may have scared the hawk. I lost sight of the hawk before I could even start recording. As far as I could see, there were no other hawks, and I tried looking far and wide, from Rosedale Lake to the soccer field near Reed Farm.

Well, I did try to record something today during my hike. I didn’t leave empty handed. I decided to record myself walking on the ice. I know it doesn’t seem interesting, but I tried to make it humorous in a way when I narrated the video. Check it out!

I decided to finally post of my hawk sightings on Jan 14th. I saw 2 hawks that day, a Northern Harrier, and 2 Red Tailed hawks. One of the 2 Red Tailed hawks was a juvenile. I’ll go ahead and share this video with you of my experiences. It is a long one, almost a half-hour long. I choose not to edit any footage, it is all shown from the moment I hit the record button to the moment I hit to stop button. The most interesting part I filmed was the Northern Harrier flying way above the marshes. The wind was much more mild than it was on Jan 10th and I kept the camera more steady than I did on that day. Once I lost sight of the harrier, I stopped the recording, then simply turned to the left and saw an adult Red Tailed hawk about a quarter-mile from that location. I started filming and zoomed in all the way to the 83x setting! The Red Tailed hawk stayed there for a few minutes before flying to a nearby tree. I stopped the recording to get closer to the tree. Once I started recording, I got a very nice close-up of the hawk. After the hawk relieved itself, it flew down on the ground. The way it swooped down made me believe that it was hunting for something. I then stopped the recording and proceeding toward the marsh. Little did I know is that there were many thorn bushes in the marsh. So, I gave up and continued walking on. About a half-hour later I saw a juvenile Red Tailed hawk on a power pole. I recorded myself walking towards the hawk and I got the most impressive close-up yet. Unfortunately, the hawk did not allow me to get any closer than 2 power poles away from it. I went ahead and tried to find this hawk again, but then it flew away again. This time, it may have swooped down on something because I wasn’t as close to this hawk as I was when it was on the power pole. I then ate my lunch at the location where the hawk was at and continued on. I then saw a Red Tailed hawk fly over the tops of the trees across the trail where Rosedale Lake is located. I’m not sure if this was the same juvenile Red Tailed hawk. This hawk flew over the trees a second time as well. To my surprise, I saw a squirrel standing right underneath the tree that the hawk was flying over. I started the recording and I said “And here is a squirrel”. I should have said “And here is the Red Tailed hawk’s lunch”! Well, there’s my hike. I went home feeling glad for getting as much footage as I did! Enjoy!

I’m posting this entry late because I didn’t think of mirroring my videos here on my website. I choose Mercer Meadows as my hiking spot because I whenever I visit ebird.org, I’m seeing that location with the most amount of hawks! Today I saw a Northern Harrier flying above the marshes near Reed Farm. I believe I was located here: 40.318001, -74.752717. There are two observatories, and you can see the observatory in this video. I would have filmed the harrier longer, but I ran out of batteries in my Nikon Coolpix P900 camera. I started recording the video of the harrier at 3:41 pm, then I took pictures at 3:54 pm. Luckily I had enough power in my camera to do that.

If you wanted pictures, I got them right here, with the exception of the ones that were out of focus. If you want to see a full-screen view of these pictures, just right-click, then select “open image in new tab”. Its that easy! You can do that anytime while the slideshow is playing.

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The last picture is something I took pride of taking, this happened when the Northern Harrier took off from the ground.

Well, today was a great day for hawk watching at Mercer Meadows! I saw 3 Northern Harriers and a juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk. I have a video of a Northern Harrier eating a vole as well as some hunting action. I filmed another Northern Harrier on a tree branch. I also filmed a cat a half-mile from that location. Then I saw a juvenile Red Tailed hawk before I ate my lunch in that exact spot. That hawk seemed to not appreciate my presence, and it flew away seconds after I stood there to film it. This was actually the same Red Tailed hawk that I saw the last time I went hiking as well. About an hour later, I saw a 3rd Northern Harrier on top of a tree in an open field at the north side of the park. I left the park about an hour after sunset, and a patrol officer reminded me that the park was closed. I would have left the park sooner if I wasn’t walking through the forest behind the trail at Rosedale Lake instead of walking on the trail! That figures!