That's Awesome! Around here, they are almost as bad as the Gulls in the PNW! LOL Interesting "problem" to have!
@ Ura-Ki Up here in the real PNW (vancouver Island ) they are huge , yours are 2.5' some of ours have 6 to 8' wing span making them 4' plus . they pickup small dogs / rabbits in heavy weather with wind & a few of my ducks . Up our streams we count 1000's & every 7 years just under 10K . Sloth
We get some 6 footers down here, we even get some pretty big assed Owls and Ospreys too ( even the twin rotor versions) quite a bit!
Around here we call those " Flying Rats".... I have three mated Pairs, living right close.... Been here all winter.. They keep the squirrel population at bay....
Great pick @Seepalaces I had a mating pair end their talon to talon death stoop just yards from my windshield a few years ago. They are bigger birds than they appear to be when in flight.
They are a rare sight in Southeast Texas but every year I seem to see at least one riding the thermals in the early spring.
Bigger is true. We don't have to many around here, but I saw one one morning at a job I was on, it swooped down across the street in front of a school bus, it was going for the ditch line, must have been a rabbit or something there, the bus had to slam on breaks to keep from hitting it , and it looked like it covered the whole road . It was an easy 6 ft if not 8 ft wingspan. Beautiful animal nevertheless .
I had one pair do that & not break apart & fall into the forest behind the ranch house . We have 10 H fenced off & the rest is for the wildlife etc & they have a travel corridor .. I'm sitting in the back of the house reading with a chair that has a pocket in arm for my beer , right beside the pond & then the forest . So I hear a huge rustle & noise coming at me , out breaks a Eagle & can't make clearance over the house without running up the roof while flapping and went kinda over me, since I spooked & flew backwards spilling my beer & was on my back thinking it was a mountain lion or bear !! Wet pants & a dead beer , This happened a second time when the mate did the same thing , only one beer & two spooks !! Sloth