Predator Call

As a youngster, I can remember cussing to myself at the cries of a red-tailed hawk that responded to the distress cries generated by my predator call.  I was sure that the hawk had seen me and was screaming out warning cries to every critter within earshot.  It was not for several years later that I finally realized that the hawk was not hurting my chances of calling a critter, he was indeed helping me.

I began to change my thinking about how the hawk squealing was affecting my calling success after having a hawk squeal while watching coyotes that had responded to my distress cries.  The coyotes appeared to ignore the hawk for the most part.  A couple of years later, when calling on a large South Texas ranch, I was fortunate to observe a pair of coyotes racing to me across an open prickly pear flat.  Just ten feet over the coyotes was a red-shouldered hawk shadowing their every move and screaming his brains out.  Since that day, I have come to realize that the only time the hawk squeals or cries is when he sees a predator.  If the hawk perches close to the distress sound and does not make a sound, it is because there is no predator present. 

I feel the reason that the hawk vocalizes is simply because he is excited and knows that there is a good chance that there will be some tidbits left over from the meal that the predator is about to partake.  Not only is the hawk another set of “super eyes” from an elevated position, I feel that when the responding predator hears the hawk, he is somewhat reassured by the hawk’s presence.

When calling bobcats, I have found that wrens are very vocal when cats slink through their territory.  You will hear the little wren following just above the cat and scolding him until the cat moves out of the area.  Crows and ravens tend to follow predators just as the hawk and have tipped the critters on many occasions.

Perhaps the most aggressive and helpful of all birds is the magpie.  Though we do not have any in Texas that I am aware of, I have really enjoyed their assistance in the northern states such as, Wyoming.  Not only will the magpie vocalize when they see the coyote, they will dive bomb him.  This dive bombing practice will help you to pinpoint the exact location of the predator.

The more time I spend in the outdoors, the more I realize that creatures of different types communicate with each other.  There is a whole lot more going on out there than what meets the ear.