the modest birder (17) raptors on the yard list

After half a century of watching migrating raptors, first at Hawk Mountain and then at Cape May, I was more than glad to find that our house is not badly located for an occasional raptor sighting. It's probably not just the proximity of two "scenic rivers" that flow in a generally southward direction and whose forested banks provide shelter for the night as well as prey, but perhaps more the diffusion of hawk flights from the Kittanniny ridges with their updrafts. It appears that a good number of hawks follow the all too numerous super highways that reflect heat on any day thus helping soaring and gliding raptors. And in any case, Hawk Mountain could be deadly on calm days or with southerly winds. Considering that too many of the birds in this entry were "once only" sightings, raptors may have flown over our place before we moved there and like the proverbial tree falling in the forest, were not observed.

Anyway, in the twelve years since we moved here I have seen 17 species of hawks, including the two vultures plus 3 owls. Turkey vultures are an almost daily visitor and several times there were several in the creek bed which seems to be a favored place for deer to die after being hit by a car (which happens about once every 3 years) or they land on the road to pick up any roadkill, like squirrels (not enough), groundhogs, a possum or an even more occasional raccoon. Black vultures occur only during migration, usually in a flock of Turkey Vultures but sometimes also by themselves, singly or in small groups.

Of the three owls, one remains somewhat of a puzzle. On the "yard list" it's marked Barred owl?. It appeared at dusk on Jan. 20, 2000 when I was checking for the Turkeys that then were still regular visitors. Immediately I registered it as "not the Redtail" as it flapped with a rather slow, deep beat, the wings never flattening out, in a straight line at the middle story of the trees, less than 50ft from the window, giving a uniformly grey and compact image. It did not have much of a head looking more like it was flattened like a boxer's. Identification by the process of elimination may not be the most accurate method, but after poring over my handbooks I registered it as Barred Owl with a ? (though that has ever seemed over cautious). I was not unfamiliar with Barred Owls as they occur along the nearby Schuylkill River and Perkiomen Creek with their wide forested stream beds.

More certain was I of the Long Eared Owl that hooted at 5am on October 10, 2006. It was hiding in the narrow hemlock that is kept dense by two medium sized trees at 4ft on either side. It stayed around for three days but though I checked after dark, I never saw it fly around. Interestingly enough, Colette's hairdresser who lives in the center of Phoenixville reported at the same time that she heard what sounded like an hooting owl from the 20ft high hedge of arborvitae behind her house. This is near a disused cemetery and not far from a nine hole golf course, both of them with evergreen and other trees. I went to check it out and indeed there was a Long-eared sitting immobile close to the stem of an arborvitae.

The third owl, an Eastern Screech Owl, was shot on Jan. 8 2001 by a friend of mine who had earlier shot 3 of the 7 squirrels that frequented the bird feeders. The fourth one looked at him from a nest box whose opening had been gnawed larger by one of those pests. He asked whether he could should the beast through the box. When we took it down it the presumed squirrel turned into a dead owl. The waste halted his hunting for the day. But so that I could put one on the "yard list" another one announced its presence with its distinctive call at 5pm on October 9, 2008.

There were at least four unusual birds for this region among the 15 raptors proper. Fortunately, each of these offered very good and relatively close views as in the case of the Mississippi Kite of June 6, 2006 and the Swainson's Hawk of 11-11-09. Moreover, in both cases subsequent conversations with other birders revealed that these (or other individuals) had been around in the area. The Swainson circled in from the fields across the road, which is where all of the other autumn raptors come from; I have watched them arise over the horizon (below which the Perkiomen flows n-east to s-west). Commonly they rise over the fields and after having reached a certain height glide off to the South. As each case was in the morning I assume they spent the night in the trees along the Creek or maybe stopped off to hunt. The Swainson came all the way across the fields, mostly circling at no more than 50ft or lower, in fact it had to get up to fly over our trees to gain the adjacent farm. In all it was in sight for about 20 minutes, about half of which giving me time to compare it with the pictures in my handbooks. This one was uniformly dark, but the underwings were two-toned dark, the lighter part in a sort of flattened V towards the front.
The kite came from the farm, circled above our trees 4 times and went back to the farm.   A rather small, generally dark bird with numerous tail bands; it looked unfamiliar at first; too elegant for a Broadwing, with which I am pretty familiar after numerous September visits to Hawk Mountain, and without the silhouet of a Peregrine, which also is larger (and neither of which, though not unusual, could be expected in June).

The other two unusual raptors were a male Goshawk on 10 Nov. 2008 and a Roughlegged Hawk on Jan 28, 2003. The Roughleg came fairly straight up our creek from the Perkiomen, flying along the edge of the forested corridor over the fields, about 50ft or so above the highest oaks. After it crossed the road it moved to the other side of the trees to fly over the farm fields. It flapped almost continuously and when I first saw it I said to myself: "a harrier," but it began to look more solid, less elegant as it approached. The wing beat was less flat than that of the local Redtails and it looked "longer." The best view I had was when it crossed the road and flew on a slant: the tail was telltale whitish and ended in a thin and broad black band; the carpal dark markings on the underwing showed clearly when it "leaned over" before straigthening out again above the farm fields. The Goshawk that came from the same direction 5 years later I "recorded" first as a Cooper's, which is a regular winter visitor. But my attention was drawn by a couple of crows that were harassing something in the trees on the up slope across the creek. As I moved around to check I saw what turned out to be a male Goshawk, perched exactly as "prescribed: "long banded tail straight down, body slightly forward (except when ducking under the assault of the crows when the light eyebrow somehow seemed sharper), the back grayish blue and the chest with lateral blackish markings. I wondered whether the hawk had been attacked by crows before an knew they would be more ferociously still if it took flight. In any case, it sat there until the crows gave up, flying away to join 5 other ones that were on their way to the farm yard. The Goshawk shook its body, ordered its flight feathers, shook its tail and sailed off back down the creek to the denser forest along the Perkiomen and perhaps down it towards the woods of the Audubon mansion and Valley Forge Park.

The other two accipiters are regular winter visitors, probably residents of the woods along the Perkiomen. In the first two or three winters there was only a male Sharpshin and we hardly ever saw a Cooper's though now they are the common predator; in fact this winter (2011-12) there are three Cooper's, both an adult male and female as well as a "first winter" female. In December the two adults alternated with intervals of several days and I also saw the female perched in or hunting near the trees where Rte 113 crosses Main Street, a great spot where the feral pigeons as well as the starlings from the farm often fly around. Recently only the adult male hits the feeders, but only about once a week. It's the juvenile female that's more regular coming by almost every day between 10am and 4pm. These Coopers often land in a tall hickory in front of the house above the hedgerow that borders our yard. From there they can see the feeders over the roof of our one story house. Interestingly enough, this winter a female Sharpshin has been coming around as well, but only just after daybreak when it attacks the ground feeders (about 8-12 White-throats, 2 Song Sparrows and some 7+ Juncos).

I have never actually seen them catch anything, though there were several near misses when the victim escaped after shedding several feathers. Two weeks ago it was a Mourning Dove and yesterday a Downy when the Cooper's sailed in low to the tube feeder which it hit with some force before flying to a nearby branch where it shook out its feathers. Once an adult male came diving down over the roof scaring up a flock of mourning doves which he pursued; having to climb up it had to catch up and flying next to them grabbed one, but lost control and the flock veered off, scattering among the tree tops while the Cooper's turned in the opposite direction. But they obviously are successful some of the time, for once I discovered a Sharpshin eating a Titmouse on the ground at the edge of the woods and I have seen a Cooper's doing away with a dove, first on the ground to finish its meal on a branch as well a one male that was spreading the feathers of a dove about 15ft from the window in the flower bed above the herb terrace. Sometimes a telltale circle of feathers appears almost below the hanging feeders; two weeks ago the feathers of an unlucky Downy were blowing around where I spread the seed for the ground feeders. From time to time I record the species and numbers of birds that appear in about half an hour when the feeders are most busy. I don't know whether 3 instead of 4 Goldfinches means one has fallen prey and it's nearly impossible to determine the predation on the ground feeders that way, because their number varies too much, though perhaps if 14 White-throats appeared on two inventories in a row and now there are only 12 at most, it's possible that the missing went up the food chain. But the predominantly brown feathers of a sparrow never turned up unlike the slatey ones of a junco now and then. This, admittedly sparse, evidence suggests that the raptors do not carry their prey off during the winter months when they are only feeding themselves. On 11-15-12, an adult male landed in a hickory toward the creek and I observed him for about 5 minutes as he carefully checked out the ground below. He obviously had
surprised a Redbellied Woodpecker and a Goldfinch; they were both frozen in place, the finch inside the "wooden bridge" feeder and the woodpecker on the side of a broad mesh tube feeder, out of sight of the hawk. As the hawk flew off over the house, I noticed the woodpecker following him
by turning its neck. Then both the finch and the woddpecker alighted and almost immediately the hawk struck down, his flight appeared to have been a faint, a succesfull one. I was so surprised that I did not notice what he caught, but later in the day I assumed it was the Goldfinch, for the 2 male and 1 female Redbellies were still around.

On weekends during hawk migration the bird banders come to the platform of the Cape May Hawkwatch to talk about their work and showing some of the hawks that they caught earlier in the day. One morning they had Sharpshins and Coopers'. When it came to explaining the decline in Sharpshins a small portion of the blame was given to the Cooper's who preyed on their smaller relative (not of course knowing that ornithologists had made them relatives). Earlier I had read that Cooper's predation was also a cause for the decline of the kestrel, a relatively easy prey as Kestrels often "stand" or would be "kiting" in the air above a meadow looking for a small rodent. Probably because ever since my childhood I knew that raptors ate rodents or songbirds, I dismissed their eating each other. Surprise, surprise, like the Apostle Thomas I was to believe the banders that very morning as we were walking down the boardwalk trail. Under the pines at the beginning of the trail we heard some movement and saw a Cooper's mantling over a resisting prey, which turned out to be a Sharpie, probably both of them among the birds the banders had just released.

All three species of falcon are only fly overs, though once a Kestrel (the rarest of the three) also perched for a short while on one of the wires that cross the road. The falcons occur mainly in the fall, though a Merlin came by several times in March; 2008 was a "busy" year as one came by on March 20, May 5 and October 9. A Peregrine can turn up any time in fall or winter and on Febr. 28, 2000 one seemed to be hunting as it kept circling back and forth over the fields across the road and as well as the adjacent farm. Several times it came close enough that I could see its facial markings "naked eye," as the saying goes.

Other, rather straight, fly-overs were an adult Bald Eagle on Jan. 12, 2011 that flapped steadily above the tree line above the creek coming from the Perkiomen and two Ospreys, one on Oct. 6, 2007 and the other on Oct. 31, 2008; each circling once in a while as they came from the n-west to disappear towards the s-east and the Schuylkil River.

Aside from the vagrant Swainson's the regular eastern US buteo migrants have put in an appearance. A Broad-winged flew up from a tree one morning in September and on October 6, 2008 three of them circled up from the Perkiomen in the company of a Red-shoulder. They gained altitude above the then still mowed fields across the road and after 5 minutes or so, set their wings to glide rapidly to the South-east.(Looking at the random dates on the "yard-list" it appeared that the fall of 2008 was a good time for hawk sightings, at least on clear days without strong northerly winds).

There are migrating Redtails also, but we have every year a pair that nests on the adjacent farm in a copse of old trees along Rte 113, just beyond where our creek's culvert passes under the road. These trees are old and winter storms bring down a branch or two each year and twice an entire tree, so I wonder how long the nest will remain occupied (It is again as off 2-14-14 in spite of the unusual winter conditions and the 2-3ft snow cover). Remarkably, most of the nest remains intact and only a little remodeling needs to be done each year. But in 2001 the nest was destroyed enough for the pair to look elsewhere and during an entire week they tried out a large squirrel nest in one of our oaks. I couldn't avoid thinking of a couple of people in a mattress store. Both hawks would perch above the clump of mostly dead leaves before one landed on it and walked around; after a while the other would repeat the action. Then they perched higher up until one came down again and sometimes both would be on the nest trampling it down. They must have found it too unstable, for they finally left. (The squirrel nest was blown away in a storm the next April). That year they nested above the creek, down stream, on the edge of the fields where the trees were especially close together. But for some reason, they returned to the copse in 2004. Usually one adult is around from November and by late January the pair begins to work on repairing the nest, hunt over the farm fields and in our woods. By February, as is the case again while I'm writing this, they soar in the clear blue sky constantly calling to each other. No Redtails are around from July until the Fall migration and I assume that the juveniles that then hang around for a few days are from elsewhere. The breeding success of our couple doesn't seem very good as I have only ever seen one fledgling in the nest or a nearby tree. Sometimes in February a juvenile joins the soaring adults, the bands in its brown tail clearly visible against the sun; it seems to stay on the outside of their circles. This week a juvenile landed on a branch on the other side of the creek with what looked like the bloody remainder of an animal big enough, I hoped, to be a squirrel. The bird picked at it but then shook a leg and parts of the prey fell down; it picked some more and another part fell down after which it flew away letting the rest fall too: they turned out to be dead leaves, reddish brown and shiny because they were wet. The next morning the juvenile flew in from across the road and landed out of sight. About 20 minutes later the two adults arrived and chased it across the road; after five minutes one of the adults came back and flew also across the road but returned almost immediately as if it had made sure the juvenile had gone. Today I saw the juvenile fly up from among the leaves on the ground, it sat on a branch clearly inspecting the spot it had left, then it dropped down again, picked into the leaves to fly up to its perch without anything in either its beak or talons. Almost immediately the two adults arrived to chase it away. I wonder whether these February juveniles were their own offspring with which they do not want to share their hunting grounds. [In 2014 the Redtails did not appear until mid-February while the snowy winter still had a month to go. Their nesting tree was now on the edge of the much diminished copse, but they restored it and actually had built it up by the end of March and at the end of may it was pretty well hidden in the new leaves. Again they raised one chick and by June they had all dispersed, though in July an adult hunted every afternoon among the open woods along the creek. Once it "sailed" down below the herb terrace, braked and caught a vole. After a few dance steps to kill it the hawk ripped it apart and consumed it in six bites; then it flew up into the nearby hickory to preen itself.]

In the 90s, before my knee replacement, I spent sometimes two days a week on Hawk Mountain and became friends with the official counter, a very knowledgeable as well as personable young man. One early November day when there were only Redtails in sight I mentioned that three of them had taken up residence along a 5 mile stretch of the new four lane stretch of Rte 422 near our house. In answer to my question whether these Redtails looked for road kills, he pointed out that the grassy shoulders and dividing strip were favored habitats of mice and voles and that Redtails rarely preyed on dead animals. No doubt because of that conversation I began to notice that in fact they do feed on roadkill. A case in point was provided in Delaware where we saw a Turkey Vulture and a Redtail contest for a dead rabbit with the Redtail flying off with it, much to the amazement of some locals who had stopped to watch the seemingly uneven struggle. Then one morning as I went to fill the feeders I heard a crashing in the hedgerow to my left; a Redtail was trying to get out of the brush with the remains of a squirrel that I had shot the previous day and thrown out of the way for some nighttime prowler. Another squirrel that I had shot out of the hickory above the suet attracted a juvenile (in February) within half an hour. It ate most of the squirrel where it had fallen before flying off with the left overs. And on 2-19-14 I shot a squirrel that died behind the suet tree, about an hour later one of the resident Redtails landed there and flew up to perch in a tree to be to be replaced on the prey by the other.

It is interesting to see the reaction of the birds when one of the resident Redtails flies through the upper canopies. Most pay no attention when the hawk flies in a straight line 100ft up, but when it flies lower and lands nearly all the birds scatter into the brush. The squirrels are nowhere to be seen or they clamp themselves close to the bark of a tree on the side away from the perched raptor, head down and stretch out flat as much as possible, a position that one of them once held for 31 minutes. Only once in the 11 years we have been here, did I see a Redtail with a live squirrel that apparently had freed itself from the hawks' talons, They were both on the ground on the other side of the creek, the squirrel hunched down, the Redtail standing about 2 ft away. As it jumped flapping at its prey the squirrel would sort of rear up with its mouth wide open while at the same time trying to avoid the pawing feet by backing up into the brush. This "cat and mouse" action went on for quite awhile and each time the attack would hurt the squirrel some more. They finally were hidden by the bushes, but as the Redtail did not emerge until about an hour later, I assume the squirrel did meet its end. I have seen a Redtail eating a bird only once; it was a Junco that it must have caught on the terrace right in front of the window where I had spread birdseed on the snow. It did not look like a satisfying meal, such a small prey for so large a hawk. Two weeks ago (Febr.'12) a Redtail probably did better. I was watching it circle over the edge of the farm field and from the corner of my eye noticed a large woodpecker fly from the top of one tree to another, as they often do on the way to our suet. The hawk saw it too and from the approaching circle it suddenly looked as if it was breaking to grab the woodpecker. They both were then hidden by our Norway spruce. Neither of them appeared again and where previously a pair of Hairy Woodpeckers came to the suet, from then on I have seen only the female. Once in a while the two resident Redtails come low and pretty fast through the trees, one of them almost hitting the feeder post, the other several feet higher and perhaps 15ft farther away and I wonder whether they are hunting in tandem, one stirring up the prey and the other ready to pounce. This happens mostly toward dusk when there's often quite a crowd of ground feeders around. But again, I haven't seen them having any luck.

In February (2012) one Redtail began to occupy the nest along 113; usually it sat in one of the trees in the copse, once in a while it stood on the nest. By the beginning of March it was joined by another adult and on the 10the one was sitting each time I drove by (at last twice a day, there's no time to stop and watch, but often one can slow down to a crawl). From then on the other was out hunting, circling above the farm fields or above the trees up and down the creek. Almost every morning and evening one would patrol the trees by flying through or just above the top story with a regular beat from the nest to the Perkiomen and back (when it usually flew lower). I have never seen it carry any food. Yesterday, (April 3) the hunter was soaring maybe 50ft above the trees when suddenly it broke the circle, flapped to set direction in a straight line, folded its wings and gained speed rapidly in a long dive, disappearing in the trees. I waited to see it emerge, but after 15 minutes or so it (or its partner?) came by from the direction of the nest, hunting in short circles.

Meanwhile the squirrels continue to make a pest of themselves and when I'm lucky enough to shoot one, two more stay after the funeral. This led to another reflection on the much used explanation for why some species proliferate to become pests. The easy answer, often found in discussions about to white tail deer numbers is that the imbalance is caused by the absence of natural predators. Considering that in our woods we have daily visits from the Redtails, an occasional visit from one or two foxes and the evening visits of a feral cat, the number of squirrels (and chipmunks) should be declining. April 30: 5 fox pups appeared on the edge of the woods near the creek where my son had just whacked so that we could really see them live it up; the parent remained out of sight. (The den is under a heavy fallen trunk on the opposite slope, now completely covered by the leafed out brush). Though with the foxes on the opposite slope, a rabbit and a groundhog decided that closer to our house was probable safer (I shot the groundhog).

By April 15 no Redtails came by and none were on the nest. After several days I assumed it has been abandoned. Were the eggs infertile? Have the parents ben poisoned (like the ones reported from Central Park, NYC., that ate poisoned rodents)? On 4/19/12 a crow was on the nest and another flew around. But that was not the end of it for on 4-27 a Redtail was patrolling the hedgerows and the next day one stood in the nest. But so far (May 1) I have only seen one Redtail and that one not in or over our woods. I appears to come from the Perkiomen woods. Crows definitely took over the nest.

February 20, 2012 (added to in April/May and again in Febr.2014)