(almost) Wordless Wednesday

Western Buteos - James Coe

This week's almost Wordless Wednesday image comes from artist James Coe. His work is known to birders from his seminal Eastern Birds field guide for Golden (view here). The above image is taken from an unpublished plate for the Western Guide. As well as his bird illustration, James is also known for his stunning and award winning oil paintings. He is a signature member of the Society of Animal Artists and member of the Society’s Board of Directors as well as being a keen birder. You can view more of his work on his website (here). Thanks to James Coe for the loan of the image!

'Tails' from a Braddock Bay banding station....

Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk - Braddock Bay Raptor Research

Although Braddock Bay, the destination for the forthcoming HMANA Raptor ID Workshop (link here), is best known for spring migration and raptor banding it also annually tracks the movement of dispersing hawks in the late summer, when the Braddock Bay Raptor Research (website here) open their nets again to band mainly young Red-tailed Hawks. As a hawkwatcher, it has always amused me that whilst watching many birds heading south in fall Braddock Bay is still catching the northbound movements of these young birds.

Recently an incredible story of one of these juvenile Red-tailed Hawks reached us at Braddock Bay via Jeff Bouton. Back then he was a bander extraordinaire with Braddock Bay Raptor Research and Braddock Bay Bird Observatory though now he is probably best known to most of you as the birding expert at Leica Sport Optics. Anyway, all the way back on the 3rd of September 1991 Jeff banded a Red-tailed Hawk at Braddock Bay, as part of the annual late summer juvenile Red-tailed Hawk movement. Recently, 22 years later, Jeff received word that the band from that bird was recovered in Pennsylvania after the bird had been found dead. Though somewhat sad, for a hawk that is a pretty good run and in fact this makes it one of the 10 oldest wild Red-tailed Hawks on record. 

Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk - Jeff Bouton

Jeff noted in his message that the day they banded the bird was not a particularly exceptional day for raptors at Braddock as they had captured and banded a mere 10 Red-tailed Hawks. To me that seems pretty good, but then we are comparing it to the kind of days where well over 100 birds have been banded at the Braddock Bay stations. As Jeff noted in his message to BBRR though:  

"...One of those 10 birds however would turn out to be exceptional. One of the largest birds of the day, which took the largest band size acceptable for the species (7D), was just reported found dead near Marion Center, PA. This means the bird lived over 22 years in the wild and makes it the 10th oldest wild Red-tailed Hawk on record!"

Though the above photo of Jeff was taken at the time, it probably isn't of the bird in question as Jeff reckons it to be a little too small. To me it's incredible to imagine this tenacious bird staking out its territory and surviving quite so long in the wild. Out of interest Marion Center, PA is about 250 miles south from Braddock Bay so the bird obviously did a little more wandering before settling down. Data like this shows the continued value of raptor banding. The USGS page on Longevity Records for North American Birds provides a useful educational tool when people ask those inevitable 'how long do they live' type questions about raptors, or any other birds for that matter (visit their page here).

"Mr Grumpy Pants" - Luke Tiller

Coincidentally one of the oldest Red-tailed Hawks in captivity is held by Anne and Paul Schnell. Anne is co-director and heads up the banding efforts at Braddock Bay Raptor Research. Anne and her husband Paul have educational birds and Pauls birds are a major part of the BBRR's educational and outreach events. Their 35 year old Red-tailed Hawk, affectionately called 'Mr Grumpy Pants' still gets called in for publicity duty and my first season at Braddock Bay I ended up posing in the snow alongside Mr Grumpy Pants for the cover of the local newspaper. Grumpy was born in 1978 and is an imprint, as a result of being fed by hand once removed from his nest. As far as I can ascertain, the oldest recorded captive bird died at 36 and a 1/2 years

Two Red-tailed Hawks and a Bald Eagle

Last week I was watching a pair of local nesting and wintering Red-tailed Hawks. The pair nested in a large white pine nearby last year, successfully raising one chick. During the summer, after their young had fledged, they built at least two additional nests, one of which at least was done with the active assistance of their recently fledged bird.

The pair has apparently remained near their nesting territory during the fall and winter and, over at least the past two months at least, the male has broken off branches (see photo above) and carried them to multiple nests, where he alone appears to place and work the branches into the nest. (Not very assiduously, however. Not much time is spent working the stick around the nest, and I have not seen the female land in the nest to rework the sticks at all during non-breeding season.) Their attention to their nesting territories is merited because I have seen at least 5 other Redtails in the immediate vicinity, including four birds that appear to be western-type Red-tailed Hawks, likely winterers from eastern Canada (they are much darker overall, with dark throats, heavy rufous bibs, much heavier belly bands, and much darker backs.)

I was particularly intrigued last Tuesday when I was observing the local male (and vice versa; he clearly recognizes and tolerates me). Suddenly he took off, flying low over me and small but dense woods in the direction of a nearby dam. I just figured he was gone hunting. Within seconds, however, I had a subadult Bald Eagle fly right over me at treetop level, followed by the male adult Red-tailed Hawk, flying low right behind the eagle like a school principal ready to crack down on the intruder if it did anything wrong. It was acting like a Red-winged Blackbird that attacks a passing Red-tailed Hawk in spring, except this time the hawk did not make direct contact with the eagle. On a highway, however, the hawk would have been arrested for tailgating.

As the birds got about 30 yards down from me, the male veered off from direct pursuit and turned to kite into the wind over the primary nest tree while his somewhat larger mate shot out of the woods and replaced him on the eagle’s butt. The female adult Redtail escorted the subadult eagle out of sight, but reappeared quickly over the trees and soared up to an altitude somewhat higher than her mate, where she kited into the wind high above her territory and her mate. The two birds “hung” there for what seemed several minutes. The eagle did not reappear.

This reminded me of last March, when the last migrant Bald Eagle that I saw locally that season, flew up along the east side of the lake, just above the treetops. As the eagle passed, Red-tailed Hawk after Red-tailed Hawk came out of the woods along the lake edge and hung in the sky, kiting into the wind, clearly making their claim to the territory beneath and warning the eagle to keep moving. It reminded me of the “dirigible wall” used in Europe in the first half of the twentieth century to warn of and discourage approaching enemy aircraft. It was almost comical. This time, however, I was impressed to see the Red-tailed Hawks’ aggressiveness in protection of their nesting territory early in January! Watching this pair of suburban Red-tailed Hawks year-round is fascinating.