Birds of prey and my cats

[ventodue]

[quote user="odile"]I have recently made many enquiries about birds of prey's hunting skills as used in falconry. <snip>[/quote]

Interesting points of comparison, Odile - thanks for the post.

I think it strengthens the contention that the DebP has little to fear for her cats from any birds of prey.  But I find your note about the risks of poisoning - and, as discussed on other threads, traps - to be well made, unfortunately.

Amicalement

Craig

[DebP]

Thanks all, especially Odile

I'm due to go back to the house in the next couple of days, so will take my camera. This has certainly got me more interested in the different types of birds or prey in this area.  I'm now pretty much reasurred that my cats are safe from these birds.  It's a minor worry about traps and poison (for my cats anyway) because they're old cats so are unlikely to go wandering off into the woods......I just had visions of them happily sunbathing on the terrace and a large bird thinking they'd make a rather nice supper!!

Deb

[andybear]

Do not fear! I can be more or less certain that you are seeing Common Buzzzards, whuch are as common as chips around here. They will not take a normal sized cat, we have to my knowledge at least three breeding pairs here and we also have had cats since we have been here with no problems. I am a member of the 'Hawk and Owl Trust' and have contacted them in the past about this. Despite it being a size thing there us also the fact that the average cat could do severe damage to a Buzzard rendering it incapable of hunting and they a'int stupid!!

When we lived in the UK, one morning my wife went into the garden and was suddenly aware that she was being watched by a very large owl. We contacted the local Raptor centre and when the girl came 'round she said it was a Bengali Eagle Owl ( bigger than a european one ) that must have escaped from captivity, we were worried about the cats and she said the same thing, Believe me the average 'moggie' can look after itself.   

[Catalpa]

[quote user="DebP"]This has certainly got me more interested in the different types of birds or prey in this area.  [/quote]

Well, in that case...!

From the book to which I referred earlier, he's a (undoubtedly incomplete) list of what you might see:

Bonelli's Eagle

Booted Eagle

Golden Eagle

Short-toed Eagle

Goshawk

Honey buwward

Eagle owl

Long-Eared owl

Scop's owl

Peregrine Falcon

Red Kite

Sparrowhawk

Egyptian Vulture

Griffon Vulture

I'm very envious! Do you do b&b? [:D]