Lorene and babies chase Hawthorne, the hawk

Yes, Lorene and her babies chased a hawk, one I am familiar with whom I now refer to as Hawthorne. They were eating peacefully-- worms, fallen seeds-- when Lorene suddenly looked up. I noticed her looking up into the sky and trees. Now, turkeys look up in the sky often, so this is not unusual, however, this time her tail feathers became extended. Her largest baby, whom believe is a male because of its size, shook his body, held his wings out and ran with Lorene to the edge of the property. All at once, all of them ran towards a birch in the corner near the pond. What I found interesting about this behavior was the aggression. The turkeys were not running away from a predator, they were running after a predator in the trees. I ran out, snuck around the shed and saw it. Yes, a hawk. Hawthorne. 

Yep, Hawthorne, our huge female red tail hawk. I've run into her before while looking up into my cedars as blue jays were doing their mob screams. I had thought the predator was way up in the tree and so had stood at the base looking up for a while. I unfortunately had no phone or camera, just wanted to see what was going on. Curious.  I saw nothing, so turned to leave,  and there she was--this massive raptor. The entire time I'd stood there searching the top of the cedar, Hawthorne had been sitting quietly on a lower branch, about nine feet from my face, staring at me. And when I say staring, I mean staring. There's nothing like a stare from a Hawk nine feet from your face. I stood. She perched. I said, "Well, aren't you gorgeous." She acknowledged my compliment.  I could tell she agreed. I would say she's bit on the arrogant side. Anyway, she stared like this a while. Gorgeous lime green eyes. Chestnut, light brown extended head feathers. Large rotund torso-- white with reddish brown streaks. We had a moment. I wondered what she was going to do. Was she mad at me? Was she playing a stare game? Was she curious about me? It got a wee bit scary only because a hawk's eyes are so incredibly intense. Almost evil looking, although I do not think she's evil. She's just your basic serial killing hunter. I felt myself losing her stare game, so I cheated and walked to her side. "You're also a horrifying creature," I said,  keeping my eyes on her. She perched another moment, and--probably because I cheated by moving and talking--  turned, leaned over, shot out a poop out and flew off. She didn't appear scared, and while her head feathers were extended, she didn't seem aggressive. I suspect she was telling me this was her territory, I was an invasive species but she would allow me to stay as long as I didn't interrupt her. 

So, here she was again. And the turkeys were running after her? And she was flying away from them? I assumed the turkeys were not threatened by a raptor anymore because they were bigger. There was no way the hawk, even a big one like this, could grab a turkey this big out of a pack of them. But why chase the hawk? Were they protecting the squirrels and birds?

I grabbed my iPhone, but while I saw her up in the tree, I couldn't get a clear shot. She flew to another tree. And the turkeys followed, all staring up at her. That's when I caught the video, first of the turkey's trying to get behind the fence to the tree where Hawthorne was perched. 

After she flew away, she perched on a nearby tree, turned her head and stared at me again. Some day I will invest in an expensive camera because my iPhone just doesn't capture the beauty of this creature. She truly is one gorgeous bird. I told her once again she was gorgeous. Once again we had a moment. Then she flew off.