No there is no tethering of the leg, you must be mistaken, there is no tether, I would never attempt to deprive them of their free will. And actually they are used to me talking to them because I have done so since they were in eggs still, did you bother to look at any of my previous videos before falsely accusing me of something I’m completely against… I know you don’t know me, but you should maybe not make false accusations it just makes you look bad. These are free flying hawks that are just a couple of months old. Between my 2 channels I’ve got about a thousand hawk videos up, you show me one that is tethered and I’ll show you you’re wrong, that’s not my style. I talk to these hawks and they talk back to me. I earned their trust through daily visitations, I would never tether a hawk, some people just spout falsehoods without even knowing what they are speaking of… I don’t like to call out people but if you make false completely untrue allegations than I will correct you, sorry but you came and tried to call me out as well as insult me and you have no idea what your talking about, your just making things up, don’t be that guy.

I will bet you any amount of money you want that nobody with any experience with hawks will concur with your silly blatant assumption, it really is frustrating to me that you would try and accuse me of doing something I’m completely against. I’m an advocate for hawks, I educated my whole neighborhood on them, I don’t do this for profit, I do it to share the beauty that they behold so that people will stop demonizing them, and to raise awareness about them so people will not do ignorant things like tether hawks etc. I don’t want you to loss money but I would like a sincere apology… Go ahead share this with any and every ornithologist you know; they will laugh at you most likely. Misinformation is toxic!

I agree my friend! They are also a great sign of a healthy eco system. I love Birds of Prey!

I wholeheartedly agree!

Well you certainly made my day, thank you Angie! I was just listening to a song thinking of a friend who just died, and I was feeling a little blue and it cheered me up to read your comment; thank you somehow I feel like the universe needed me to hear that right now!

@RobinASmith138 I'm so very sorry about the loss of your friend. And you were absolutely supposed to see my comment when you needed to see it! The universe is magical like that ✨️ I don't know if you believe in previous lives, but I believe I was a Red Tailed Hawk in a previous life, it's the only explanation why I'm so obsessed with them, imo. Maybe you were a Cooper's Hawk in a previous life 😊 I know it's a little corny, but we NEED corny in this life! Ya can't take life too seriously, ya know!? I hope you have a peaceful night & thank you again for sharing your Coopie fledglings with us!! They're just so cool!!

@@Angie-jk8cp actually that makes a ton of sense to me! I feel very connected to hawks of all sorts, maybe I have been different hawks or a Coopers Hawk; the magic started with me seeing a picture my friends mother took of a Red-shouldered Hawk; and people marvel at how welcome my presence is around hawks! I think you may be on to something! I am watching a newly fledged pair of Red-tails I see them nest yearly but I don’t have a good enough camera to record much of them. Have a great day and see you in the skies someday…

@@RobinASmith138 😊😊😊

I agree I feel very grateful to have the bonds I do with Farrah and Ace, he loves to swoop by me early in nest season but it’s like as soon as babies are born, he’s all business! I bet it’s hard to feed a family of 7, he provides very well though. Good luck with your hawks, it takes time for them to let their guard down. I do things like clap little birds way like mockingbirds love to bother them here so if they are I step in and clap them off and she knows that I’m doing it to get them away, you’re right they are very smart!

Oh my gosh, that was the best advice you've given me so far! I'll make sure I clap off the mockingbirds so that they don't bother the hawks! Do you just make a few claps, or it is just one clap every few seconds? One time I saw a Red Tailed Hawk way up on a power pole. I used to lay down under that hawk a couple years back. I arrived early in the afternoon one day and a mockingbird was mobbing it on the same pole. So I threw a cookie way up in the air. Unfortunately, the hawk got nervous and flew off and the mockingbird continued to follow it halfway down the field before turning around. Lesson learned, NEVER THROW THINGS AT HAWKS! However, not all hawks are equal. I have thrown a chicken liver high up in the air and that same hawk was cool with it. She swooped down within a few seconds. However, I wasn't going to expect her to catch it in mid-air. The movement does help though, but a short throw would have been better as long as it is a very small piece of meat and not something big that could harm them if it were to hit them.

I was within ten feet and closer to some at different times. I have talked to them since they were in eggs still and I have known the parents for at least 2 years, so they like accept me as an acceptable person I guess, I never try to do anything that would lose their trust, never. Actually the 5th bird was the one who was eating atop their food transfer station aka wooden electricity pole, the one that flies up towards it at the end landed under it and I ran out of time but it shows that one getting the food delivery at first; it ate most of it just 5-6 feet above me on a lovely huge pecan tree. I have to thank the family for allowing me such great access to them today, I could of filmed from the alley but it was nice to talk with them and marvel at how their yard is now a whole gang of birds favorite place in the world now, luckily I went to school with their daughter since kindergarten same grade and all and they are both teachers so they knew me and would see me checking on the nest often it’s right above the street next to their house. I have other videos where I am an arms length or so from different hawks; sone ppl say I’m a hawk whisperer but I think I just exude interest and love for them and they’re not dumb birds… thanks for watching and for your comment I love to answer comments truly!

If you watch again when the video starts there is one small male fledgling way atop the telephone pole and the other four are below it trying to see if they can get some leftovers from him, I love how they have manners seemingly, you rarely if ever see Cooper’s bullying or stealing food from a small weaker one… when they leave the area they leave in groups of 2 or more often it just helps increase the chances they all eat.

I'm SO envious!! What a gift to be witness to these new raptors!! SO VERY COOL!

Yeah, I've made mistakes with my hawks, unfortunately. One day, a hawk named Tammy that lives just outside of my neighborhood and was on the top of a basketball hoop. I had a camera tripod with a chicken leg on it. I crossed the street to set the tripod underneath her. But I have never walked over there before because that's in someone's front yard. She then flew to the light pole that was a few feet behind it. I got mad and walked back and set up a pigeon trap for her with the chicken leg inside. I taught her a lesson that she shant soon forget. But my plan backfired. She dropped the chicken leg as soon as the trap activated and she escaped. I covered up the trap with my blue jacket. She remembers me doing that when I successfully trapped her last year and I covered the trap with that same jacket when she was inside of it. So she knew what I was doing! She never forgets anything! She flew to the roof of the house where the basketball hoop was on. I then RAN very fast across the street on the sidewalk and I threw the chicken leg as high as I could and blew my whistle as loud as I could. My anger was of no help and all it did was ruin Tammy's trust over me. She thought I was going to hit her with that chicken leg. I settled on setting the chicken leg down gently on the grass underneath the tree she was perched on to the left of the backyard. After that day, she didn't swoop as readily to my food, nor does she let me get closer than 25 feet or so. That's the limit for her. I used to get 10 feet....but not anymore. Tsk tsk! Now that she's been away from the nestlings and came back, she is on her usual tree that she used to perch on all the time before I set the trap down. I will make sure I gain trust fair and square next time. Eventually the bad experience of me trapping her and the throwing of the chicken leg will subside amonst the good things that happened, but she'll have to be extremely hungry for that to happen! Hunger and time is what ultimately builds trust. They both have to correlate respectively. A bird isn't called a birdbrain for nothing, however, their peanut sized brain is larger than you think compared to most other animals! So they do have some intelligence in there. The hawk whisperer is already taken by someone, but it sure ain't me. The hawk whisperer actually talked back and forth with each other....really!!!! But that only happened because he provided a meal for his hawks of course. I love hawks, but their stubborness kills me sometimes!

Oh wow, so these hawklets are like hunting partners in a way, almost like Harris Hawks. However, they will only hunt together until they are good enough at hunting that they can do it independently. They will part their ways in a month when they go on their hawk journey to find a new territory to nest in after 2 more years. So at least they can still bond with each other until then.

They are certainly rivals! I got to see 4 Species of hawks nest or begin to nest, the Broadwings I’m not sure if they have a nest I saw them take over these Cooper’s hawks first nest they started on at end of January but they built it about 50% and then decided to build another a third of a mile away, it’s too bad because original sight was gonna be right across the street in front yard where I can stand on sidewalk and be under nest. So then the Broadwings were there but I think they got spooked by all the stray cats in the area, but especially one that would go after the hawks or their food cache’s. Oh well I got to see 3 others have offspring that fledged. Sorry your hawks didn’t win out this year, maybe next year.

Just chilling with the hood hawks my man, right minutes away from downtown San Antonio in the inner city, there is life all around us; I find more hawks in my hood than I do where I work in the country… I enjoy it, maybe you do or will when you get a little older too, maybe not, but thanks for commenting anyway and I wish you the best in all your endeavors.

Yes he did! He is always showing off for me, that’s my buddy I named him Ace! Thanks for looking!

Thanks I appreciate that you appreciate it!

No this was probably the shortest I’ve seen from them. I am pretty positive if you were to watch every video I had with mating in it this was the fastest encounter I got on tape certainly as far as I can recall. Although it’s usually just several seconds, maybe like 5-7 seconds normally.

Thank you to those of you that got it, it had 0 likes before I said that I’m pretty sure; I love it though thank you so much it means a lot to me just that you watch!

Oh yeah it wasn't it moved on. Even it's parents I don't see much. They only had this one survive summer '22

Whew, that's good news! As far as the number of hawklets goes, sometimes there could be only 1 successful hatch or one nestling could hog up all the food causing the other to starve to death. But once they fledge, then another problem arises, how to survive in a constantly changing world filled with cars, buildings and other obstacles. There's rare instances where I see hawks stay in their home territory during the entire Winter. I never saw such hawks this year. Last year there was one fledged hawk that I named Sammy. He figured out I was going to help him thrive. I gave him plenty of meals, but unfortunately I lost trust in him after I trapped him and tied him up to a tree to convince him to sleep there for the evening. He did free himself from the string by the way. The next day, he flew away from me every time he saw me. I visited him a few more times. But then he decided to leave the area. A couple of weeks went by and I had thought he had migrated already. I was fortunate to see him hunting on a small wooden perch about 70 feet away from me. He almost flew right towards me after he caught something on the ground. He then flew across the street so I decided to follow him. However, when I approached him with a chicken gizzard, he flew away from me into the forest. I never saw him again after that. He knew he didn't ever want to come back. I now realize that once you lose trust with a hawk, it is nearly impossible to gain it back. No food in the world will change that.

@@jthejhI agree man it’s a delicate bond. This one would see my truck and call out to me and I would go drop loads of mice, rat, bird attracting food all around the area he perched, if you put food out they will come, and it would get eaten, I was hoping he was getting to make a lot of attempts and learn to hunt when I’m setting it up with luring prey right to it. It stayed around most of the summer. I actually used to visit this hawk and watch it in the nest, it was the only baby these two Red-shoulders had that year, I think it was their first brood, they got this one to fledge and I saw it until about late August-September which is normally around when they start venturing out. This hawk used to see my truck driving by and start calling to me from its perch. I tried to help it learn to catch food, I even tried to bring it a supplement because I was worried about it. I saw the parents make deliveries a couple times after it fledged, so I think they were looking out for that lone baby too.

The juveniles around here that fledge from the nest are extremely wary of people! These nests are deep in the forest. I have no idea how deep it is, but whenever I heard calls, they were very faint! The forests are about a mile thick, so judging by that the nest could be in the center of that forest, about a half-mile or so. You are lucky these hawks as well as the Cooper's Hawks nest right in someone's front yard! That makes a huge difference in how tolerant towards you that they can become. It would take a miracle for me to hand-feed a juvenile hawk! Not even the Hawk Whisperer here on RU-vid has done it yet and his hawks have a nest right across the street from his house! The last time I saw a juvenile eating my food, the mother (who's name is Tammy) grabbed it and gave it to the juvenile. That only happened one time during the Summer. All the other times, the mother would fly into the forest and I was never able to track her down. If she found out I was following her, she would fly further away from me. It seems to me this juvenile left the area very quickly, plus I remember it raining a lot right before the parents avoided hunting in that area and choose a new location further down the street. So there was plenty of prey getting flushed out from the rain for the juvenile to catch, that's for sure.

I wanted to feed it but I didn’t want it to depend on me feeding it, I did leave some meat and cereal and bread all around underneath it in that area so at the very least if it was to hungry to hunt it would go eat the meat (they can eat carrion if necessary) and then be able to hunt the vermin and birds that surely were attracted in that ditch by the food I left, I came back the next day and basically all the food was gone I hoped he got a catch and learned to hunt, that Red-shouldered hawk pair had that one baby about 50 yards from that spot in a big tree at a house running along the ditch. I had several visits like this one I’m not sure how many of them I uploaded, but this Red-shouldered hawk juvenile would see my big white truck and call to me from it’s perch relentlessly till I stopped, I felt like it knew me, it was funny. I remember on my old account I uploaded at least one video of me calling it to me and it comes and lands right above me without food as a reward, I just wanted people to see you can bond with them they are social animals and like to make human friends, I would watch out for them and that’s how we bonded.

Ahh I understand I’m sorry for that bit of false hope possibly, that is not what I intended; I thought I had cut it off a couple of seconds before you’re expecting the RSHA to show up on the post that I’m pointing at those last several seconds. Yeah you last see the bird a few frames after I pan to try and catch what I can, it’s actually extended nicely but it’s not so clear and it’s brief and the problem is that there is a fence and bushes as high as the fence which has to be about 7 feet tall, there are several posts and over the years I have watched many Red-shoulders there I have seen them even try to build a shabby stick nest on a ledge at this old folks community that is for old ppl that want to live like near others in a pretty nice apartment building, it’s unlike any I know of here, it is triangular mostly I guess it’s hard to describe but not another place I can compare to at moment, it’s odd, it is expensive too, they used to have Peacocks too. On my original channel I have some videos of their stick nests a couple years there were other ledges that had sticks on them too maybe just one on several but a couple of them that weren’t being used they had brought more sticks I guess so they could impress her with one of the structures and it was interesting because the sticks were all in the same spot along the ledge although the ledge is at least 30 yards all the sticks were about 6 feet from the side, it made sense just neat to see it and see him building and for reason he would bring most sticks to her but sometimes if rebuffed he would add the stick to one of his other haunts, do u know what happened though some ppl that lived there complained and the sticks were supposedly all blown down, I know better, that’s illegal and it was sad to imagine they would ouster a nesting hawk momma to be, very sad and I was checking on them daily and it was windy but I didn’t believe there was only like 1-2 large sticks left in that corner there were a lot of large sticks she was probably about to lay eggs and then what? Very sad stuff.

Thank you I really appreciate that you enjoyed it and am grateful you took a moment to let me know you did, it helps keep me focused on capturing footage to share if I think people actually watch it, like you obviously do. I love watching them without filming sometimes it’s better to not have a phone or camera… but I like to share the beautiful things I am so blessed to be able to see. There is a lot to appreciate in nature. Thank you again for your kind words, all the best to you!

I can understand that

@@RobinASmith138 They're very cool hawks... no doubt. And wow, are they amazing at the niche they have found. I had not heard of one until they moved in. That first spring here in the neighborhood it was hard to watch. The hawk sat at an advantageous spot and watched where the song birds had their nests. When he was ready he went and took the babies. All of them. Then the parents. I haven't seen a sparrow in years within a block of my house, other than in the fall when the hawks aren't raising young and the sunflowers are gone to seed. I used to have a dozen species of various flocking songbirds. For a while groups of crows and the hawk were engaged in major battles... usually about 6 on 1. Extremely interesting to watch, but it's an assault on the ears. I like songbirds better. :) We brought this on ourselves by turning our yards into songbird havens with feeders and water sources.

@@usmcbrat2 yes I definitely understand and I can see where the songbirds that used to fly freely are very missed. I hope that I don’t eventually look at their presence as a negatively but I could see how that could happen, I would miss all the song birds too. The feeders and water sources invited them in to a paradise that has everything they would want. I have noticed there are less birds too…

Infamous for his hunting skills… the other birds fear him.

Thanks for watching

Thank you I do feel blessed as far as these encounters go.. I am definitely grateful.

We do. These are young Cooper’s hawks from the same nest that was located in my neighbors yard, they have grown up in my backyard and surrounding area, I love it that they nested so close to me because I usually go track nests. Thanks for watching and any questions you have just ask anytime.

My wife thinks I attract them 😂

Yes they are magnificent, thanks for watching and for commenting!

This was one of four of a nest of Cooper’s hawks that were raised in my backyard this year, I loved it!

I agree, look and you can find beauty, it’s all around us everywhere in this world even where it seems like there is nothing, there is…