Jo Hayes Vista September 2, 2011

After warbler watching yesterday, Alex and I headed over to Jo Hays Vista hawk watch. I’ve been seriously neglecting hawk watching this fall, so it felt really nice to get out…even though it just made me a little bitter that I am still not going to be hawk watching full time this fall.  Unfortunately, the two days I was out hawk watching this week were cursed with a south wind, including today.  A few ravens and local Turkey Vultures sailed by, but otherwise it was very quiet. Eventually a raven started calling, as I saw a large dark bird fly low through the treeline on the south east side of the ridge. It finally popped out and we got a quick glimpse of an adult Bald Eagle heading away from us.  Because of the south winds, birds were hugging south side of the ridge, so we repositioned at the powerline cut where the spring count is done (the “Tussey Mountain” count).  The winds were pretty strong here and it actually looked promising for migrants even though the skies were completely overcast and the air was really thick.  Eventually, a Turkey Vulture shot through and he was really flapping unusually hard. This usually only means one thing; an Adult Bald Eagle is about to ruin his day. Or, at least that is what he thinks, as he tries to get out of the way.  Within a few seconds our second adult Bald Eagle of the day came gliding through, and joined the now panicking Turkey Vulture on a thermal. Besides the two adult Bald Eagles, we saw two local Red-tailed Hawks, one a juvenile and one an adult.

WISN Surveys near Stutgart, AR: Snipe mini jackpot

Today started out slow, and we only had one snipe by 3:00.  Most of the habitat was too dry, even though part of our township was a flooded lowland; we just didn't have any survey transects in that area.  Waterfowl were abundant, mainly northern shovelers, gadwall, and mallards.  We also saw more flocks of greater-white fronted geese today.  On our second to last survey of the day, I started spotting individual snipe in a soybean field.  They were just barely active, bobbing up and down, and blending in so well with their surroundings.  Their activity almost went unnoticed with the breeze that was kicking up leaves, making their movement blend in.  I had one snipe alone, and then three together, and a little further down, I spotted two in my binoculars.  After focusing in on the area around them, the ground started to move with the stripes of other snipe, lurking from row to row, and sometimes darting from vegation line to the next, while grabbing a quick bite on the edge of water that was pooling in the ruts.  When looking for snipe, you really have to tell yourself to focus on things that may not be what they seem.  The stripes of a snipes back appear to be blades of grass or old crops, as does the beak when poking out from view, connected to what appears to be a lump of mud.  The snipe slowly creeped about, feeding, while only a handfull were just resting.  In total there were 39 snipe in this field, and 35 of them were in this last cluster on the low end of the field. 

In the flooded area of our township, we found this nutria while turning around from an inaccesible road.  He is no Punxatawney Phil, but I guess he will have to do for Groundhog's day.  It was sunny, so I think he saw his shadow....

nutria...invasive but cute.

We also saw this juvenile Harlan's hawk, and this pair of red-tails, that watched us survey for awhile before fleeing.

juvenile Harlan's hawk

red-tailed hawks

On a sad note, we found this juvenile cooper's hawk dead on a telephone pole.  For some reason, this pole is covered in mesh, and I suspect it had something to do with conducting electricity through the bird.  Unfortunately his talons got caught in the mesh, and like 3 red-tails I saw in NE and KS, got stuck to the pole. This body looked to be at least a week old.  If anyone knows why this pole is covered in mesh, I would be curious to know.

juvenile cooper's hawk

wire mesh

WISN Surveys near Forrest City, AR

Today, after driving about two hours south towards Forrest City last  night, we ended up finding only one snipe, early on in the day.  As two snipe yesterday, this snipe was in a row of a cotton field near small puddles of water. 

The rest of the habitat we surveyed throughout the day were not ideal for snipe, so we got through the 9 surveys in the township by 2:00.  We then completed two surveys in a township to the east, which has much better habitat.  At the second survey site, there were over 100 killdeer, and about 20 ring-billed gulls in a muddy field.

Birds of note today were a single ruby crowned kinglet, a yellow-rumped warbler, white-crowned sparrows, American pipits, and this rufous morph red-tailed hawk.  At one point, we saw a darker red-tail soraing with about 5 other red-tails.  This may or may not be that bird, as we found him perched about 2 miles away.  At this point in the trip, we are seeing many more red-tails than we did initially.  The most common raptor up until today had been northern harrier, but today we finally saw more red-tailed hawks than northern-harriers.

ruby-crowned kinglet

red-bellied woodpecker hiding on a telephone pole, peeking out

yellow-rumped warbler

white-crowned sparrow

rufous morph red-tailed hawk

Mystery hawk, Custer County, NE

Around 11:15 am this morning, I found a shrike sitting on a telephone wire on road 792 in Custer County.  I was getting great photos.  All of a sudden in my camera shot, a dark bird appeared.  My intial thought was that it was a night hawk...small, dark, and some evidence of white on the wings.  This is when I snapped the photos below, as the hawk was coming towards me and approximately 20-30 feet above me (my camera was on full 20x zoom).  However as I watched the bird head straight for me, it became clear that it was not a night hawk at all, but a small hawk like bird, actually bigger than a night hawk.  My initial thought was accipiter, only because it seemed to match the size.  However, none of the markings were correct, and the bird was not acting like an accipter.  I watched it soar, then "kite" repeatedly (similar to the behavior of a kestrel, but not as rapid/quick).  This bird was too small to be a red-tailed hawk or a rough legged hawk (never have I looked at either and thought "night hawk").   It stayed around for about 5 minutes, slowly getting father and farther away.  I called Alex Lamoreaux, my boyfriend and also, conveniently, raptor expert, and he suggested that I was observing a merlin.  Again, the field marks were incorrect for any kind of falcon.  The bird left, and I took varios photos of its silhouette, and a brief video (the bottom two photos are the best, will post more soon).  I then consulted my Peterson guide to hawks, and the only thing I can match my photo to is a short tailed hawk, dark morph.   (Update! Confirmation from Jerry Liguori that this is indeed a Harlan's Red-tailed Hawk!)

Elm Creek, NE: familiar turf

Tonight I am just south of Elm Creek, Nebraska, where I spent the summer working on the Platte River for USGS (least tern and piping plover monitoring).  I made it quickly through the bottom corner of my NE area, mainly because it is familiar territory, and the weather is cooperating.  The majority of my survey locaitons in Kansas were grasslands (cow pasture), and so far the majority in Nebraska are, you guessed it, cropland, corn.

I saw another Harlan's today, but otherwise, did not see any new birds (see photos, bad lighting but can still see field marks).  I forgot to add that yesterday I saw my first juncos of the trip and the season. I have also been seeing huge flocks of migrating sandhill cranes.  I've been looking for whooping cranes, but so far haven't found or heard any in the flocks.  I am working west now across Nebraska, south of interstate 80.  When I get to Ogallala, I will head north east and start working through the sandhills, my favorite part of NE.

dark intermediate morph harlan's

From KS to NE...more interesting red-tails

Today I made it into Nebraska.  Three days ago a big winter storm moved across the country, and the area I was in got dumped on by rain.  As if my roads weren't already hard enough to get to in a sunfire!  I stayed in Norton, KS for two nights, waiting for the rain to stop.  The next day, the sun came out and dried up the roads a little, but not enough to make them passable.  I had to bypass a few, but I would be coming back through that route again on my way into Nebraska.  It was already a slow day, so I wasn't particularly happy, when I came across this (WARNING: GRAPHIC).

This unfortunate red tail somehow got electricuted and stuck on this power line pole (northern Jewel County).  Maybe his feet got stuck first, and the struggle electrocuted him, or he got electrocuted first, and his grasp got him stuck.  It was incredibly sad, because his mate was still sitting near him on the wire.  I think it had just happened that morning, as the body looked fresh.  There is no way I could get him down.  I am writing a letter to the power company with questions about this pole design.  These particular poles don't have cross bars, where a raptor would usually sit.  I don't expect anything miraculous from them, as this is not a new issue, but I am interested to hear their response.  I also do not know much about bird strikes/deaths on powerlines, so hopefully I can learn more.  It just looks like the wires are not far enough away from the pole top.  Whooping cranes sometimes hit powerlines, but don't actually get electrocuted.  Necropsies show that they usually die from the impact, and the lines only caused them to fall.  This is very different.  It would be interesting to see if this red tail actually was electrocuted (which is my suspiscion) or if he simply got stuck.  Other red tails in this county seemed to sit on the wires, because of this pole design, while others sat next to the insulators or on top, like this red tail did.  Unfortunately, I think this happens a lot, but bodies probably fall to the ground and aren't found.

red-tail kill, Jewel County KS

Sitting about 1/4 of a mile down the road from the red tail was a prairie falcon!  She was also sitting precariously on these poles, but in a different spot.  She flew a few times, but I managed to get this photo. 

prairie falcon, Jewel County KS

At Lovewell State Park, I found this intermediate juvenile harlan's hawk. 

Jewel County, KS

This morning, I found this curious coyote roaming through the road.  She disappeared into a den in the ground.

Another interesting find is this bird.  It was sitting on a fence with some magpies and crows.  Originally, I thought it was a Harlan's with some strange pigmentation (the white "V" on the neck/nape).  After looking at my books and talking with Alex, I then thought it was a light phase female rough legged hawk.  I still think it is one, but Alex really thinks it is light intermediate morph harlans, due to the white scapulars running down the back and making a "V."  I think this is hard to say for sure do to the quality of the photos, but suggestions are welcome!  Either way, I have never seen a hawk like this!

Smith County, KS

Smith County, KS (same bird as above)

A little to the west, I found this juvenile Ferruginouse Hawk soaring around.

Smith County, KS

Finally, the day ended abruptly when I tried to make it down a slick road.  After barely making it through some mud pits, I saw one more and said "I'll turn around after THIS one!"  Unfortunately I was sucked in, and got royally stuck!  I waited for the nearest tow truck, thanks to Triple A, and was easily pulled out.  I lost about three hours of day light, but hopefully I can make it up before the next big storm.

A sunfire, while sometimes impressive off-road, is not a jeep.

Rattlenakes, pack rats, and red-tails

Well I have had an interesting few days.  Two days ago, I started counting red-tail hawks along my way.  I see so many different sub species, and they are all so numerous.  The first day I counted 55, all a variety, in addition to 11 harriers and 1 peregrine falcon.  Yesterday I counted over 150!  It was a really windy day and they were migrating in groups of 20-30.  Today was also a great migration day for red-tails.  I had well over 100, and saw some very interesting varieties.  Before I get to that, though, yesterday I came across a red-tail on a dirt road, standing in the road.  I thought maybe he was on a kill, but he just seemed to be standing there looking at something.  Then I thought he was maybe exhausted from migrating, or maybe even injured.  Here is a picture of what I saw.

If you look to the right of the hawk, you can see a little blob...I thought it was a snake, and I didn't know if the hawk had killed it yet.  I inched closer in my car, and eventually the hawk flushed.  I feel bad for ruining his dinner, but I gave him ample time to eat/kill it!   He flew away, not injured.  So I went to investigate his find and I found this:

western massasauga

the small, but still scary rattle (near Wilson State Park)

So after this I moved on and did a few more points, and got ready to camp at Wilson State Park.  I sleep in my car, usually, since it is a little chilly these nights.  A lot of nights, raccoons like to investigate my vehicle.  So, when I heard noises in the night I blamed it on coons and went back to sleep.  I was a little suspicious in the morning when I still heard it but didn't see the coons, but I started out driving anyways.  My transmission was a little jerky during gear shifts, but again I thought maybe it just needed to warm up.  When the check engine light came on, I pulled over, ready to check my transmission fluid.  I opened up the hood and found something similar to a christmas tree under my hood; some "critter" in the middle of the night, decided it was a good idea to stock pile eastern red cedar branches under my hood, in every little space.  I wish I could have seen the look on my face...I was appauled!  It wasn't funny until later.  I cleared out the cedar and upon further investigation found chewed wires.  The nearest town was 18 miles away so I dropped everything and headed for Beloit, KS to an auto repair shop.  They found even more damage that I couldn't see, including the chewed wire to the engine from tranni, another set of chewed off wires, and a chewed off vaccuum hose.  Not only did this critter chew them off, but he apparently ate them, as they were nowhere to be found.  Two hours later, I was on my way again.  The actual parts only cost $2 to replace, but of course labor was $58 an hour!  That was one expensive night of camping.  Apparently a pack rat (southern plains woodrat) was the culprit, and the car repair shop sees this all the time!  One time, a rat continued to live in a man's truck, and did this three times in three consecutive days!  Hopefully I don't have a passenger along...

Anyways, here are some of the interesting red-tails I have photographed over the last few days.  Alex has helped me ID them.

juvenile krider's hawk

adult western

pale adult light morph (of eastern variety)

another juvenile krider's

eastern red-tails in transition phase (seem exceptionally light, may have krider's in them?)

this one was flying with the bird above...over Glen Elder State Park

I have a few more counties left in Kansas, and I am trying to beat the rain that is coming in the next few days.  Hopefully I have no more pack rat set backs!!!