Strange- but true?

In most parts of the world that would take a lot of falcons. I'd say it's done more for amusement. BTW, love those birds. Efficient. They leave nothing but feathers. Also, have never seen a falcon go for a seagull. They generally prefer smaller. less aggressive, better tasting prey like rodents, rabbits, doves & pigeons. However they're not beyond going for a person's eyes yum yum.

I was out shooting with a buddy a couple of years ago and we saw a Blackheaded Gull take-out a good sized rabbit. Scarey.

A couple of years ago we were a fair ways north of the Galapagos heading toward the Canal when the deckies started finding feathers and other bits of s--thawk on the deck in the morning. We finally spotted a not very big raptor of some kind taking refuge on top of the stack.

One of the guys said it was a Galapagos Hawk, not sure about that because we were a long way north of the islands. The bird left us when we were about at our cpa so it may well have been blown out to sea in a storm. We frequently find birds on deck in the middle of nowhere, and in the Persian Gulf have had falcons with leg gear come aboard. In any event, this one didn't mind eating seagulls at all.

My parents used to live year round in the mountains, about twelve miles past a gate on a dirt road. At eight thousand feet above sea level the snow would get quite deep and every winter their cats would go missing. They kept getting more cats until they eventually gave up and just stuck with dogs. The next summer me and my nephew spotted a raptor, I believe it was a hawk, circling above and after a few days of watching it we determined where its nest was. One afternoon we took off on the ATVs with a camera to find its nest. Needless to say, we solved the missing cat mystery when we saw the pile of bones at the base of the tree. Since some of the cats were my nephews it took him awhile to get over it. We still laugh at the situation of my parent unknowingly feeding a raptor family for several winters without even knowing it.

I believe the falcon idea would work. There's an island in the middle of the great salt lake that has a very large pelican population. (Ironically, since there are no fish in the great salt lake, they must fly far away to find food) The island is also home to many raptors that feed on gulls and many other birds. During slow sailboat races on the lake, watching the birds hunt is a great way to pass the time. Well, that and endless batches of bloody mary's.

hey guys, i was watching tv a few years ago and they were doing this doc in dubai, and more to the point a doc on Burj al Arab Hotel (the hotel that looks like a sail), anyway they trained a hawk to scare off the pigeons or whatever bird problem they have. and im pretty sure they did it in new york aswell. pretty cool hey

far

Pigeons are like candy to a hawk.

We woke up to this, and all our Booze was gone WHOOOOOOO...

Indeed. Hawks have been used to control both pigeons and rodents in New York City parks. Here's a 2003 NY Times article about the very practice: http://bit.ly/mWvh

RU sure Timothy Leary didn't have a hand in that?

hawks and seagulls

I saw a program on tv where they used hawks to scare away segulls on airports in england. all they had to do was be there and the seagulls blew town.

cliff

Hawks have been used at Barcelona airport to scare away seagulls since long time ago. Sometimes they just broadcast the scream of a hawk through loadspeakers and that's enough. Hawks were also used as a trial in one of the marinas of Northeastern Coast, but were much too expensive for this business. Now they shoot a seagull every two or three months leaving the body well in sight, with the same effects. The problem is that now (believe it or not) the gunner has to be protected inside a car because when the seagulls see the rifle they attack him. How is possible for them to know that the rifle is the cause of the death of one of them every two months? I don't know.

Almost all hawks used in Saudi Arabia and their falconers have been trained in Toledo,Spain. Probably it was an arab tradition that was taken and preserved by the spanish nobles and kings.

The idiots are the tourists that are feeding seagulls in the ports...

Seagulls dumb? They're rats with wings. When all other inhabitants of this world are long gone there will be seagulls, rats, pigeons, roaches, racoons, horseshoe crabs and my mother in law.
My old boss put rubber snakes on our bimini and the gulls never crapped on them. A foot away was another story. As for those tourists...Grrrrrrrrrrr.

When working as a young steward one night, walking up the sidedeck of a 220'footer, I got taken out by the local wildlife.

The yacht had beautiful 18" X 10" polished stainless fairleads and nice bright sidedeck lighting. While walking back up to the galley with a silver tray, silver coffee pot and crockery, WHAM, I got struck in the back of the knee by a hugh flyingfish darting through the fairlead.

A great crash and a bit of moaning followed, with a not too happy Chief Stew growling over me.

Now you know my favourite bait on the hook.

Fish

Oh no,

My fave was the story of the 45 foot sailboat that caught a Yellowfin Tuna on a trailing line, wound it up to the cockpit and it went ballistic.

They had just spent $4000 on new electronics, shattered, then pitched the skipper down the companion-way thus cracking his head.

I personaly know this hurts having been kicked between the legs by 280lb tuna with an angry tail.

OOh!

That actually happened twice in one season back in the early 90's. The woman was on a houseboat. Her husband was fishing and pulling in his line as she came out the door. When he raised the bait the cuda followed. Result 200 plus stitches from her shoulder to the opposite wrist. That same year my wife had a cuda jump next to her elbow and almost into the boat as she was giving a tour in front of Pier 66. Another time we got to view a manatee porn show on the triangle bar at the mouth of the New River.
So Fish, you like those flying fish eh. On my first transport north from Lauderdale I woke up for the first 3 mornings having to clean the fish off our stbd. side...dozens of them.
Some of the strangest things happen on the water.