Another nice job AJ! Is there ever a worry that they will imprint to you as a "parent" and try and follow you down? How do mom and dad hawk treat you while at their nest. I'd think you need eyes in the back of your head....
Thank you!
They need multiple days to imprint. It's more dangerous for them if a rehabilitator does not conceal themselves while feeding. If they become used to being around humans and lose their wildness they get in a lot of trouble. The saying "A fed bear is a dead bear" applies to hawks too. Wildlife is much better off being afraid of humans.
Which brings up my two red-tailed hawk attacks. Both happened in more urban settings. My raptor rehabber and I are thinking that these hawks have been become habituated to humans in their daily lives hunting in city parks etc. and have lost their fear. They still don't like people but they will act to defend their young. In more suburban and rural context I've climbed to nests for all the local owl and hawk species none have attacked. They show plenty of agitation and anger but they stay back.
Even if I know that I'm still super wary when I'm at red-tailed nests, will take time for that to go away if it does.
In wild settings the Northern Goshawk will attack humans who are on the ground near the nest. This makes sense, the Accipiters (Sharp-shinned, Cooper's and Goshawk) are wildly aggressive birds in general. Sharpies and Cooper's will not attack at the nest but the red-tailed sized goshawk will.
I was attacked by a male red-tailed right after I put his young in a nest. He pounced on my hand like a cat and didn't go deep with his talons. It was more surprising than anything else. At another nest a female (bigger than the males) came in from behind to my left and hit my left forearm and got both sets of talons into my arm. I was in a vulnerable position on a very narrow diameter white pine top. I was reaching up to put a baby in and she hit me and then released. She bounced off my arm and kept on flying. It was a bit of a blood bath. After that I drew eyes on the back of my helmet with a marker.
Turns out raptor punctures even when deep are very clean. I washed with betadine on-site and applied hot compresses 2x a day for 3 days. The wounds healed up quickly and well.
-AJ
