Category Archives: Birds of Prey

Eagles Count


Bald eagles have made a stunning comeback in Pennsylvania since the 1960’s when only a couple of nesting pairs survived DDT.  There are now at least 174 nesting pairs in the state.

We know these numbers because of the PA Game Commission’s careful management of the species and because of the Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey which is happening right now across the lower 48 states (except Florida), December 29 through January 12.

Unlike the Christmas Bird Count, the Midwinter Bald Eagle Survey has pre-defined routes assigned by a statewide coordinator and most of the participants are state and federal wildlife employees.  It’s a very precise, scientific survey which does not change locations from year to year.  The goal is to count the same way every year without overlap.  Click here to read more.

Why count in the dead of winter?  January is a great time to see bald eagles because the trees are bare and the birds are courting, building nests and roosting for warmth.  This year the PA Game Commission is especially interested in the roost sites because it’s important to preserve them as winter habitat. 

Habitat preservation is an important part of the PA Game Commission’s bald eagle management plan.  The birds are now so numerous that they can be de-listed in Pennsylvania but this success will only continue if we are careful not to undermine what we have today.  Toward that end the PGC has published a Draft Bald Eagle Management Plan for 2010 to 2019.  It’s a fascinating document that describes the bald eagle’s lifestyle, its history in the state, and PGC’s plan for making sure we have plenty of eagles in years to come. 

You can read the draft management plan here and send your comments through March 3. 

Check out the plan to see what’s going on with our eagles.  They really count in Pennsylvania!

(photo by Chuck Tague)

Always Carry Your Camera

You never know when wildlife will do something fun.

Last summer when Luke Gerben Kaspar attended camp at Carnegie-Mellon University he spent time watching two immature red-tailed hawks at Schenley Park.  The hawks probably fledged from the nest on CMU’s Fine Arts Building so they were still close to home.  And they were still too young to be serious!

Fortunately Luke had his camera with him and caught the hawks goofing around.  Watch the slideshow of their silly antics.

Good job, Luke!  We’re glad you carried your camera.

(photos by Luke Gerben Kaspar who was 11 years old when he took these pictures.  Thanks to his mom, Gigi, for sending them.)

Merlin and Peregrine Action at Pitt


If you don’t read PABIRDS (an email list of nearly 1,000 birders in Pennsylvania), you probably missed today’s report by Ryan Ford, a member of the University of Pittsburgh’s Birding and Ornithological Club.

Subject: Pitt Campus Merlin
From: Ryan Ford <RMF42 AT PITT.EDU>
Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2010 16:05:38 -0500

As I was walking to my afternoon class I heard several chickadees giving
alert calls between the Cathedral of Learning and Schenley Plaza on the
University of Pittsburgh campus.

An adult MERLIN then shot past just 10ft above my head with one of the
local Peregrine Falcons chasing after it.  The two birds proceeded to play
cat and mouse over Schenley Plaza (almost hitting Posvar Hall) before the
Merlin managed to shake the Peregrine falcon loose.  The Peregrine
proceeded to soar and watch from overhead as I watched the Merlin chase a
chickadee over the plaza.  It eventually left the area unsuccessful after
the Peregrine began to descend again from its lofty position.

Definitely an exciting day in Oakland!

Our club President, Connor Higgins, arrived a minute too late (he's quite
sour about that)after I alerted him about the chase.

Cheers,

Ryan Ford
University of Pittsburgh
Birding and Ornithology Club

.

Doesn’t the merlin resemble a peregrine!  No wonder E2 had his dander up!

Also, at lunchtime today Karen Lang and I saw an adult red-tailed hawk eating a pigeon on the lawn by Heinz Chapel while one of the peregrines watched from above.

And… Dan Yagusic saw a peregrine falcon at the 62nd Street Bridge around noontime.

AND… a very rare falcon visited Pennsylvania yesterday:  A white-morph gyrfalcon flew by Waggoner’s Gap Hawk Watch, north of Carlisle!

Update on Wed 12/8/10:  Tony Bledsoe saw the merlin fly by Langley Hall at 11:30am.

(photo by Debbie Bozkurt linked from www.thewesternisles.co.uk. Click on the photo to see the original.)

Swoop!


Here’s an action shot by Kim Steininger.

This juvenile bald eagle zoomed into the frame from the right, caught a fish and flew away with it clutched in his feet.  The splash is arcing toward the fish while his wings hide his face. 

Swoop!  

Now’s the time of year to see bald eagles on the Susquehanna River at Conowingo Dam in Maryland.  I wish I could go.

(photo by Kim Steininger)

Hey! Back Off!


Red-tailed hawks eat squirrels but red-shouldered hawks, like this one, are a little too small to make squirrels a normal part of their diet.  Perhaps this squirrel knew that.

A few years ago Steve Gosser saw an immature red-shouldered hawk perched quietly in his parents backyard.  While he watched, a gray squirrel climbed the tree and made a beeline for the hawk.  Did the squirrel want to challenge the hawk?   Who would win?

When the squirrel got too close, the hawk puffed open his wings. 

Hey!  Back off!

The squirrel got the message and left the tree.

(photo by Steve Gosser)

Prairie Falcon at Mud Level Road


I usually don’t chase rare birds because I am so disappointed when I drive a long way and don’t find what I came for, so in December 2005 when Andy Markel reported a juvenile prairie falcon in the open fields of Cumberland County north of Shippensburg I did not go see it.

Over the next few weeks Andy and others found and photographed the prairie falcon again and again.  It was so far out of range that many wondered if it was a falconer’s bird but no one could prove it.  The bird stayed through the winter and then was gone.

Prairie falcons (Falco mexicanus) are western birds of cliffs and open country.  They’re the same size and shape as peregrines except that they’re pale brown and white with dark axillaries (armpits) and pale heads.  They range from California to Colorado, from southern Canada to Mexico. They never come to Pennsylvania.

But this one does.  Every winter the prairie falcon returns to the same place on Mud Level Road.  Now, of course, it’s an adult.  In February 2008 it was found so easily that many birders made the trek to see it and even discovered that it roosts at a quarry a mile away from its daytime haunts.  (Prairie falcons like cliffs just as much as peregrines do.)

Still I did not go to see it.  The 3 hour drive from Pittsburgh was too long for the disappointment I was bound to encounter.

But this year the falcon came back early — November 20 — and I was going to be in Hummelstown for Thanksgiving, only an hour away.  Saturday morning, November 27, was my only chance to chase it.

Long before dawn I drove to Cumberland County and found two other birders already at the intersection of Mud Level and Duncan Roads.  Neither had found the bird but with more eyes on the sky we stood a better chance.

Soon we saw a falcon hazing the pigeons northwest of Mud Level but even through a scope the bird was impossible to identify.  Jonathan Heller and I drove to Brinton Road for a better look but could not relocate the bird.  Mike Epler stayed behind, then drove the circle.  No luck.

Back and forth we searched.  Jonathan and I tracked a falcon that didn’t look quite right but it was our best candidate.  We finally caught up to it just as it landed in a tree on Brinton Road.  We screeched to a halt, jumped out of our cars and identified … a merlin.

At any other time and place a merlin is a good find but we were disappointed.  This was made worse when Mike drove up and told us he had just seen the prairie falcon at Mud Level and Duncan.  He had watched it retrieve a mourning dove dropped by a harrier, then perch and eat the prey close enough for a great look.

Aaarrrgg!  We went back to our starting point but the bird was gone.

Jonathan was preparing to leave so I took a slow drive down Mud Level Road contemplating the ephemeral nature of rare birds.  I told myself that on this trip I’d heard horned larks and seen a merlin, kestrels, northern harriers and red-tailed hawks — and that should be enough.  Sigh.

No point in looking anymore.  Sigh.

I drove away slowly down Duncan Road.

A pale brown hawk, very pale, on a hay bale, caught my eye.  It had its back to me and was eating.  Oh my!  I pulled off the road and parked near the hay bale.  I rolled down the passenger window and had an excellent view of the prairie falcon as it ate a bird.

The falcon looked around, his cere and eyerings yellow, his legs brighter yellow, his head quite pale.

Though I stayed in my car I made him nervous.  He bobbed his head, then picked up his prey and flew to another hay bale.  In flight I saw his dark axillaries.  Again he was nervous, flew down to the ground, then eventually northwest across Mud Level Road.  Good bird!

I’ve now seen every falcon that normally occurs in North America except the aplomado.  (It occurs from Mexico to South America, rarely in the southwestern U.S.)

Needless to say the bird in this photo is not the one at Mud Level but it captures his look and posture.  For an even better look, click here for a flight photo and you’ll see the dark feathers under the wing.

(photo of a prairie falcon by Matt MacGillivray via Wikimedia Commons. Click on the photo to see the original)

Avoiding Unintended Consequences

Snail kite in Florida (photo by Steve Gosser)

15 November 2010

Chuck Tague sent me news from Florida Audubon of a well meaning plan to control an exotic plant that would have disastrous consequences for the snail kite.

Snail kites are unusual birds of prey with red eyes and deeply hooked beaks that specialize in just one food:  the apple snail, so-called because its shell resembles an apple.

Apple snails live in clean, warm, freshwater lakes and wetlands, so that’s where the snail kite lives too.  Most of the snail kite’s range is in South America.  In the U.S. they are found only in Florida but are increasingly rare and now considered endangered in this country.  Their population dropped from 3,000 in the mid-1990’s to only 700 birds today due to habitat loss, the degradation of the Everglades, and a huge drop in the population of native apple snails. 

But there is one bright spot.  Snail kites also eat the exotic invasive Island Apple Snail (Pomacea insularum), pictured here, that thrives in the presence of a plant called hydrilla.

Island apple snail (photo by Chuck Tague)

And that’s where the trouble begins.  Hydrilla is both exotic and invasive.  It jams boat propellers and clogs lakewater habitat, so to make room for navigation and native species the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission planned control measures to get rid of it.  The problem is, if the hydrilla is gone, the population of island apple snails will crash and this will starve off the last remaining snail kites in Florida. 

That’s why Florida Audubon mobilized their members to attend a meeting in Kissimmee last week to urge Florida FWC and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife not to enact an aggressive hydrilla control plan at Lake Toho. 

Citizen comments prior to the meeting already helped the situation.  According to a Florida Fish and Wildlife news release, FWC and USFW modified their plan to clear hydrilla only from the navigation channels, making sure that enough hydrilla and apple snails remain to feed the snail kites. 

And so they’ll avoid the unintended consequence of extirpating snail kites from the United States.  

Read more about the snail kite’s tenuous life in FL here.

(photo of Snail Kite by Steve Gosser, photo of Island Apple Snail by Chuck Tague)

Vulture Facebook


Human faces turn red with anger or embarassment and pale with fear.  Do other animals do that?

Well, yes.  Some vultures can rapidly change the skin color of their bare faces and throats in response to peers and rivals.  Scientists in Namibia observed interactions among lappet-faced vultures at feeding sites and found that these birds have their own “vulture facebook” signals.

The scientists learned that lappet-faced vultures with pale skin are at the bottom of the pecking order, even lower than juveniles.  Those with bright red skin, as seen on the throat of the vulture pictured here, are dominant over pale-skinned and juvenile birds and vultures with blue throats were dominant over all.

This knowledge adds a whole new dimension to vulture watching.

Do our turkey vultures do this?

I don’t know.  Maybe they don’t use (vulture) Facebook.

(photo linked from Science Daily, credit: iStockphoto/Johan Swanepoel. Click on the photo to read the Science Daily article.)

Thumbtacked to the Sky? Not!


At midday Tuesday I walked to the Cathedral of Learning to find the peregrines, but no one was home.  Instead I saw a tiny speck floating in the deep blue sky above campus.  Was it a balloon? 

Through binoculars I identified an adult red-tailed hawk, motionless as if thumbtacked to the sky.  The heat gave her lift and the wind was just right to hold her aloft without moving her wings.  Sometimes she dropped her legs to create drag, then pulled them up to her motionless position.  Slowly, slowly she drifted out of sight.

I forgot about the hawk and walked the Lawn to check the north face for peregrines.  I had just decided none were there when the red-tailed hawk whooshed over my head.  Barely clearing the treetops, she dropped low over the central lawn, folded up her wings, lowered her talons and nearly — nearly — caught something on the ground at the hedges.  At the last minute the prey escaped.  The hawk pulled up quickly, flew over the heads of three pedestrians and popped over the hillside toward Forbes Avenue. 

Yow!  I was seriously impressed! 

Peregrines fly like fighter jets but red-tails normally maneuver like 747’s.  This was the first time in years that the flight of a red-tailed hawk made my heart go pit-a-pat. 

It’s amazing what a 747 can do in a tight spot. 

(photo of an immature red-tailed hawk on the hunt by Kim Steininger)

Hawk Watch Information

Cory DeStein asked me about Hawk Watch information and I realized that many of you may be interested in it too.

Hawk Watches, where people count migrating birds of prey, are active right now across North America.  In Pennsylvania the first big push of broad-winged hawks is in progress.  You can see how many broad-wings pass each day in the statistics posted on the HMANA (Hawk Migration Association of North America) Hawk Count website.  (Choose the hawk watch by name.)

The HMANA website is also a great way to locate a hawk watch near you.  Just click on the map of North America here and select your state.  If you decide to visit one, keep in mind the weather makes all the difference.  Hawks like to migrate in good weather with a tail wind. 

Not sure what a Hawk Watch is?  Click here for a 2016 story that describes what it’s like to watch hawks at Hawk Mountain, Pennsylvania.

(logos from HMANA at hawkcount.org.  Click on the images to visit the website.)