Hawks in Lake Wylie area (York: vs, food, yard)

[Becky21]

Just moved to the Lake Wylie area and have 2 small Yorkies. I was just warned today that there are a lot of hawks in the area and they could go for our dogs. Please advise of any experiences. Is there anything to scare them away?

[Jeff in Indian Land]

Hawks and other birds of prey will go after small dogs, rodents, other birds, fish ... it just depends on the type of hawk and how plentiful the sources of food are.

We have numerous red-tailed hawks in the Indian Land area, and you can listen to mates calling each other from treetop perches around sunrise.

We've personally lost a large koi (an ornamental pond fish popular in Japan), as well as some of the birds we feed in our yard, to hawks.

Hawks seem to perch at a high point (top of tree, power line, etc) with a clear view of their target prey. They have excellent eye sight, and seem to fixate on their target prior to striking.

I don't think there's anything you can do to keep your dogs 100% safe, other than keeping them close to you - or inside the house. Some small birds, like the mockingbird, will try to chase away a hawk if it gets too close to their nest. Kind of like Davey vs Goliath.

I should also mention there are Blue Herons in the Indian Land and Ballantyne areas, so folks with ponds should be observant if their pond is in the open. We cover the ponds during the cooler weather, because the fish become lethargic ... an easy meal for a large bird looking for food.