Heck, here in Kansas, the hawks are so thick, you're lucky to see only 2-3 per mile on the lines. Every though I'm able to see first hand, the damage they do to the upland bird population, legally I can't touch them either. I used to raise a large amount of pheasants. I'd loose hundreds of dollars worth of pheasants yearly to owls and hawk.

But they are the smartest birds I've ever seen. A very interesting bird. Here's a scenario. I pheasant flies at full speed near the top of the net. The owl or hawk is able to reach through the net, and grab the bird by the neck/head, while in flight. An amazing feat, though very discouraging to find headless pheasants in my flight pens...

I've seen the raptorsdo it, and occasionally even get their claws caught in the net themselves. Too bad controlled shooting of raptors in selected areas, wasn't legally available.

Bald Eagles are becomingpretty common around North-Central Kansas as well. The publicsay they consume mainly fish. But Kansas isn't know for being the "Land of a Million Lakes", if you know what I mean... haha Even though there are many more factors (Farming Practices and Weather as Majority), raptors are a fraction of the cause of the decimating population of upland game.