Hello. This is my first time on this forum and I expect there will be plenty of people that will tell me this is nature and instead of getting so upset. I should enjoy seeing this pair of sharp shinned Hawks. But this is beyond just a few song birds.
Just a quick background,..
I live in Mora, Mn I have been feeding the song birds in my back yard for 7 years. I usually have 4 feeders up, in the summer I add 3 hummingbird feeders and an oriole feeder. My yard is busy busy from March until December. Even in over the winter I can have up to 20 birds easily eating. The beginning of January 2026 I noticed the Jays making a lot more ruckus than normal . Making their alarm calls . I would go outside to see what all the fuss was and a hawk would fly away. At the time I thought it was a Cooper's hawk, (which maybe it was) this started happening on a daily basis. One or maybe 2 times a day. March I started hearing calls. Hawk calls. Now this is wear I get confused. The calls the hawk was making were the calls of a broadwinged hawk. But I had seen the hawk pretty close up and it was definitely a sharp or coopers hawk. Pretty soon there was another hawk, they would fly above my yard scoping it out. They did this for a couple days. Scared the songbirds half to death. Then the flushing started. The birds would fly from one side of the yard to the other then again and again. Just terrified. This has been going on for a couple months now. I am sure they have a nest in the woods, maybe 2 yards from my house. Not even. My feeders have been down for 13 days so far. I still have the bird bath out because they need to drink. Yesterday a cardinal pair. That have been coming here for several years. were in the woods, 10 feet from my yard. Alarm calls non stop. I went out there and the hawk was somewhere but of course I can't see it. Abd a baby cardinal is on the ground screaming for his parents but they are just as scared as the baby. Trying to protect it but can't do much. The hawk eventually scared them off. I tried to protect the baby but it was no use. This all day attacking has been a daily occurrence for 2 months. I have watched this hawk or hawks kill so many of my birds. And there is nothing I can do about it. It's gotten so bad I don't even want to go outside I get such anxiety. The orioles are here and I am so worried the Hawks will get them also. How do I cope with this it is there any insight or helpful ideas to get these hawks to move on? If they have a nest dbd babies it's only going to get worse and I can't spend my whole summer in the house. When I hear those alarm calls from the chicadees grosbecks and thatchers I immediately run to the wood line cause I want to scare that hawk away I know they need to eat and it's the food chain but COME ON . I have witnessed at least a dozen birds fall to the hawks , I see piles of feathers everyday and I can't help but think this is my doing. I am just so sad and helpless I don't know what to do. But there is nothing I can do....right? I understand hawks are protected. But this literally is happening from sun up to sun down