While we are on the subject of raptors.....my parents once had a basketball sized Barred Owl they couldn't shoo away. It would kill birds in their yard and then stand triumphantly over the carcass, wings spread and screech really loud for about ten minutes. Sounded more like the scream of someone being tortured. You could pretty much walk right up to him and he would hold his ground. Drove them crazy for most of one summer.