I need some advice on this terrible problem. The past few days, I have become aware of what I believe to be a Cooper's hawk stalking my birds! There is snow on everything, which limits my beautiful bird visitors from finding food another way. We will have a couple of days warm up to melt the snow, 2 or 3 days of very cold weather, then more snow.
Thus far the birds and squirrels have safely fled the hawk, even after it swooped down on the very large evergreen bush near the feeders to try and catch one. I was sitting at the window and saw all the birds in the bush fly out the other side of the bush as the hawk swooped down, thank goodness! I also have weatherguards on top of my feeders to help protect the birds from hawk visibility from above. Thankfully, I haven't seen any "pile of feathers" that would indicate a hawk was successful.
Is it better to leave the feeders up during the winter, with snow on the ground, or should I take the feeders down for 2 weeks in the hope the hawk will move on? I am very worried about my birds and it would break my heart for any of them to be gotten by a predator or starve because of lack of feeder food at a hard part of this years Kansas winter.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thus far the birds and squirrels have safely fled the hawk, even after it swooped down on the very large evergreen bush near the feeders to try and catch one. I was sitting at the window and saw all the birds in the bush fly out the other side of the bush as the hawk swooped down, thank goodness! I also have weatherguards on top of my feeders to help protect the birds from hawk visibility from above. Thankfully, I haven't seen any "pile of feathers" that would indicate a hawk was successful.
Is it better to leave the feeders up during the winter, with snow on the ground, or should I take the feeders down for 2 weeks in the hope the hawk will move on? I am very worried about my birds and it would break my heart for any of them to be gotten by a predator or starve because of lack of feeder food at a hard part of this years Kansas winter.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.