September 26, 2008:

Two weeks ago in Maine a red squirrel and I both had a close call. He escaped with his life and I got a thrill.

I was sitting outside the Harbourside Inn at dawn drinking my morning coffee when I heard a rustling sound and a red squirrel’s frightened scream.

Fifty feet away a hawk was chasing breakfast, hopping fast through the trees with wings outspread.  His prey, the red squirrel, was cheating death.

Brown and white with a bold white eyebrow and long, powerful, yellow legs the bird had the wingspan of a red-tailed hawk.  “Oh my gosh!” I thought, “it’s an immature northern goshawk!”

Until that moment I had never seen a “gos” (*) on the ground.  I’d only seen them during quick fly-bys at hawk watches and often needed help identifying them.  Not so with this bird.  This one fairly shouted “I’m a gos!”

Northern goshawks are the largest North American accipiter.  Truly a northern bird, they don’t leave their territory in winter unless their food supply crashes.  In Pennsylvania they nest in the northern tier and only come to the southwestern part of the state in winter, but because they prefer forested areas to cities and suburbs it’s unusual to see them in Pittsburgh.

Goshawks are well known for fiercely defending their nests, aggressively attacking humans and even killing raptors who nest nearby.  If this bird had been an adult during nesting season I would have been in serious trouble sitting only 50 feet away.

Fortunately the goshawk was young and intent on his meal.  I watched the red squirrel escape and the goshawk fly to a perch deeper in the woods.

What a privilege to see him!  Though it was a stressful morning for the squirrel, I’m glad he was there to tempt the hawk into the open.

(Thank you to Debbie Waters, Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory, Duluth, Minnesota for her photo of an immature northern goshawk)

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(*) A note on pronunciation:  “Gos” (pronounced “goss”) is the birders’ nickname for the species.  “Goshawk” is pronounced “goss-hawk.”

Drinking coffee on my front porch has its advantages.  Saturday morning I saw an immature coopers hawk trying to find breakfast at Magee Field.  

When he first showed up he looked pretty good chasing a flock of pigeons.  But they were too fast for him and the flock was too dense.  They could tell he was harmless and just wheeled in circles.

Meanwhile all the birds fell silent until they figured out the hawk was inept.  He jumped from branch to branch pausing to see if anything was easy to catch.  No, not as easy as he expected.  He was so unskilled that he made a lot of noise and motion with every jump.

All the birds joined in jeering at him.  The adults made warning noises while the young cowered.  Seven crows showed up and made rattling sounds in his direction.

Time and hunting practice are crucial for this immature hawk.  He must master the art of hunting very soon or he won’t survive his first year of life.  

Such a baby.  Even though he eats the birds I love, I hope he makes it.

(photo by Chuck Tague of an immature coopers hawk at a rehab facility)

Lately several people have asked for help identifying huge dark birds.  Based on the descriptions I think they’re seeing turkey vultures.  Here are some pointers so you can solve the mystery on your own.

Turkey vultures are large dark birds of prey with a 5.5 foot wingspan.  Because of their size they are confused with many hawks and even eagles. The best way to know the difference is to watch how they fly.

Hawks tend to soar with their wings held flat.  Bald eagles have such a flat profile that they look as if they have “wings like planks.”

Turkey vultures soar with their wings in a dihedral — a shallow V.  They rarely flap and even seem to avoid flapping by teetering from side to side.  No other big bird consistently teeters with its wings in a V.  “V is for Vulture.”

From a distance, turkey vultures look different than other large birds because they have relatively small heads and beaks (compared to hawks and eagles) and their legs don’t extend beyond their bodies (compared to herons and cranes).  As you can see in Chuck Tague’s pictures, these birds are dark below with a pale trailing edge on their wings and small red faces.

Until a few years ago I only saw vultures in the country but now they’ve come to town.  They nest along our rivers’ wooded hillsides and rise aloft on the heat from Downtown and the stadium parking lots.

In the afternoon they soar in search of carrion which they locate by their keen sense of smell.  They’re so good at finding rotten odors that natural gas companies out West located leaks in their pipelines by watching where the turkey vultures congregated.

When you see large soaring birds teetering with their wings in a V, think “V is for Vulture.”

(photos by Chuck Tague)

Here’s some news about our national bird on the Fourth of July.

Pennsylvania:  Earlier this week the Game Commission issued a statement about bald eagle nests in PA.

Great news!  There are more nests than ever.  Last year there were 132 known nests in the state.  This year there will be more than 140.

Bald eagles are nesting in 47 out of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties.  Interestingly, they are not nesting in most southwestern PA counties – only in Butler, Armstrong and Westmoreland.  This pair, photographed by Chuck Tague, is in Butler County.

Bald eagles are “sea eagles.”  They prefer to eat fish and they nest near water.  With three rivers in Allegheny County – four if you count the Youghiogheny – we’re hoping bald eagles will eventually choose the Pittsburgh area for their home.

Virginia:  You may remember the eagle pair at Norfolk Botanical Garden whom I wrote about on April 16.  Their lives were like Peyton Place but they had an egg and the potential for a successful nest.  Unfortunately their troubles didn’t end.

In mid-May the eagle webcam showed that their one eaglet had a growth on his beak.  Every day the growth got larger.  By May 22, the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries decided the bird needed to be examined.  When they pulled the eaglet from the nest, they discovered the growth had started to deform his beak.  He was sent to the Wildlife Center of Virginia for treatment and possible surgery.

Tests showed the eaglet has avian pox, a common bird disease (no danger to people).  He has been getting excellent treatment – even an MRI! – and receiving a regimen of drugs to help him get better.  Meanwhile the growth has shrunk considerably, making future surgery a safer option though his recovery has no guarantee.  He sure is one high-tech eagle!

Back at Norfolk Botanical Garden, his parents consider the year a loss.  They continue to stay at the Garden and will undoubtedly try again next year.  Wouldn’t it be amazing if their eaglet was released some day and came to visit?  They would think he’d come back from the dead.

(photo by Chuck Tague)

The nest is empty.

Last week two red-tailed hawks took their first flight from the nest near my office. Several things intrigued me about the way they did it.

First, it took them two weeks to progress from flapping hops to flying away. This seemed to take only a week for the peregrines. Perhaps the learning curve for red-tails is longer because they’re larger and heavier.

Then, in their first flights the red-tails refused to land on trees. Instead they flew to WQED’s building, our satellite dish and a TV antenna. I expected them to land in the trees near their nest but I guess they thought the trees looked scary because they grew up in a gutter.

And then there was the whining. When they were nest-bound I never heard them make a sound. After they flew they became very noisy about food. I found them easily last Friday because they were whining from the floodlights.

So now there are four large, similar-looking hawks outside my office window. How do I tell the difference between the adults and their kids?

As you can guess, behavior is a huge hint. The babies beg and the adults supply food. But what if they’re perched alone?

The easiest field mark is their tail. I’ll use this photo of an immature red-tailed hawk by Jamey Stewart to illustrate. Notice that this bird’s tail, protruding below his two wing tips, is brown with faint horizontal stripes. An adult red-tailed hawk has a rusty red tail. It’s that easy – red versus brown.

There’s one gotcha about this bird that you can’t see here. Jamey sent me two photos of the immature red-tail that visited Duquesne University’s campus last week. One showed the bird’s back and there I clearly saw half-grown rusty red feathers, hidden by his wings in the photo above.

So this immature bird is not a fledging.  Chuck Tague says they begin to grow red tail feathers at about one year old.  Red-tailed hawks take 3-4 years to mature so this bird has some years to go before he’s an adult.

p.s.  Thanks to Chuck for clarifying the age at which the red tail feathers grow.  I also learned that immature red-tails have yellow irises (eyes).  See above!  When red-tailed hawks mature their eyes change to a dark rusty color.

(photo by Jamey Stewart)