[birding] Help with REDTAILs

[Lisa Millbank]

Hi Rick,

I would also guess that if you were noticing lots of Red-tails lining the 
highway in the early spring, a lot of them were just wintering here.  They 
were probably hanging out near the highway because there are fences, signs 
and posts they like to use for perching and hunting.  The Willamette Valley 
is a nice place for hawks to spend the winter, because voles and other 
rodents are active throughout the winter, and there's usually no snow cover. 
A lot of those Red-tails started heading north to breed around late 
March/early April (like the Rough-legged Hawks do), and some go east of the 
Cascades.

Lately we have seen Red-tails at Fitton Green and along Oak Creek Rd., as 
well as over our neighborhood in SW Corvallis.  So some are still around, 
but are spread pretty thinly because they don't like to have neighbors close 
by during breeding season.  Like Joel mentioned, there will soon be a bunch 
of youngsters around too.  In late September and early October the migrating 
population of Red-tails will start coming back to their winter vacation 
spots around here, and they will probably be common along the highway again.

Lisa
www.neighborhood-naturalist.com


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joel Geier" <joel.geier at peak.org>
To: "Rick Hale" <5techdad at gmail.com>
Cc: <birding at midvalleybirding.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 13, 2010 5:41 PM
Subject: Re: [birding] Help with REDTAILs


> Hi Rick & All,
>
> This morning our 11-yr-old daughter Martha mentioned that an odd-looking
> hawk was flying around and calling frequently. From her description
> (similar to red-tailed but light tail, lots of white in the wings) it
> sounded like a juvenile bird recently out of the nest. I've frankly been
> too busy lately to keep tabs on the local birds, but based on that
> perhaps you'll be seeing more Red-tailed Hawks soon as the youngsters
> fledge and move out from nesting areas.
>
> The other thing going on of course is the grass-seed harvest. I've been
> seeing congregations of Turkey Vultures searching windrows in nearby
> fields, where there is plenty of carrion from rodents and snakes that
> get caught in the swathers. Red-tailed Hawks normally also take
> advantage of this situation, and do much of their "hunting" by walking
> around on the ground, scavenging and probably also pouncing on voles
> that are short on cover.
>
> So perhaps you'll see more redtails if you look out into the fields (on
> the ground), rather than on their usual perches. Since most fields have
> been swathed but not yet combined (seems like harvest is running a bit
> later than usual this year due to late June rains), it might be hard to
> see the hawks in between those windrows.
>
> Happy birding,
> Joel
>
> On Tue, 2010-07-13 at 11:54 -0700, Rick Hale wrote:
>> I live in Albany and work in Corvallis. I drive HWY34 everyday. I
>> noticed that in early spring, there were tons on REDTAIL HAWKS
>> everyday along my 12 mile trek. Then they faded off to have babies.
>> Now they are gone. I don't see any now. Where do they go?
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