This evening, I was shooting some White Wings. I was standing beside my shop and shot one as it went over the shop. Not hit real hard, it fluttered into the trees in my back yard. When I looked around the corner of the shop to see where it hit, I saw it bounce once, flutter back into the air, and get hit by a Red-Tailed Hawk that lives in the woods behind me.

Normally, Hawks are pretty shy but he gave me "the look" and flew up into a tree with my Dove. I think he was daring me to try to take it away. I was pretty amazed that all the shooting between me and my neighbors kids hadn't scared him off. It's almost like he was sitting there waiting for one to come his way.

I think it was a challenge

Was he calling you out for a showdown.

I am sure that was great to see. If the dove was still alive and just a cripple, I would think it would not count. A Game Warden ain't gonna retrieve the evidence that is for sure.

I have had hawks get a duck from me more than once. I think the most memorable is a horrible stormy windy rainy sleet mess of a morning when a hunting partner backed out. But I went anyway and rather than launch my boat, just walked the bank away from the boat ramp jumping ducks. Not another hunter on the lake in that mess. Shooting was awesome.

First Mallards got heavy so I left them on a flat stump and figured I would pick them up on the walk back. On the return, rounded the point and there was this Hawk on the stump with feathers flying.

He looked like Edward Scissor Hands!

No need in trolling

If a hawk or a gator eats your bird I figure it counts against their bag limit not yours.

May not be what the law says but passes the common sense test.