FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] Don Holt's Red-tailed Hawk observation

[Wallace Coffey <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Don Holt and Bristol Birders:

Your observation of two Red-tailed Hawks perched together in
Greene County is fun and informative.

There is always danger in making conclusions about nature based on
just a little information.  We can make a few speculations that may 
turn out to be accurate.

Some years ago Ken Hale and myself worked several winters with
Tom Laughlin and Rick Phillips capturing and banding Red-tailed 
Hawks and other hawks during winter.  As recently as early
January 2001 Rick Knight and I have attempted to capture and
band Red-tails and American Kestrels.  We trapped and  banded
an immature Red-tailed (second year bird) 7 Jan 2001.

Such efforts allow one to concentrate on the birds, their behavior,
their perches and to learn a little something about how and where
they hang out in winter.

The Red-tails you saw sitting together on a snag, only about 3 ft apart,
are, most likely, a well-established local mated pair on their winter range.
They were probably near one of their usual feeding areas within the
winter range.  Range here means all of the area they will frequent during
"this"  winter.  It does not necessarily get fully protected from other visiting
Red-tails.  This range may change from winter to winter.   It is likely
that their 2002 spring nest is within the range.  That does not have to
be the case.  Territory is protected.  Range is not always.  A territory
will be within the bird's annual range but maybe not within it's winter
range.

The differences you noted in size indicate a male and female.  The
larger bird was probably the most robust of the two.  That would be the
female.  The smallest females will usually be heavier than the heaviest
males.  The difference in length may not be so noticeable when they
are sitting further apart.  The body bulk will.  The female is a little
longer.

Well-established local pairs have daily habits.  The birds will not
usually get far from each other.  They are frequently within each other's
sight.  About 20 years ago we recovered a Red-tail that had a concusion
and brought it in from the field. It could not stand up, let alone fly.  After
a week or 10 days of vet treatment and rehabing,  we turned it lose where
we had picked it up (along the South Fork Holston River near the
Weaver Pike).   It's mate immediately  flew in from far up the
field, screaming several times,  and the pair then flew side by side to
a large sycamore tree.  They perched within feet.  We got all choked
up and emotional.  I turned to the landowners (two male farmers) and 
they were both crying.  This was in the dead of winter !  The bird  in
the wild immediately seemed to recognize its mate.  Of course we
are not positive.

Some Red-tails have amazing predictability as to where they perch and
hunt and some pairs have definite behavioral traits.  Some
will often perch together in the same tree.  Others will only be in the
same field.  This may be determined by the quality of the habitat and
available food. It may have to do with the longitivity of the pair bond
and their loyal strength.   I have seen birds so loyal that when we captured one
of them, I would have to keep an eye out for the other in case it decided to
dash in on us.  Ronald Austing, a famed raptor bander and author
who lives in Kentucky, has had a mate to swoop at him in such a
case.

Stan Moore, of San Geronimo, CA, who is one of America's top
conservationists and one of the nation's best and most successful
hawk banders.  We have corresponded about capturing raptors.

He recently wrote on a listserver  that famed birder Pete Dunne,
In his book, "The Wind Masters", claimed that Red-tailed hawk pairs
spent the winter separate from one another, and only associate closely
during the nesting season. Stan disagrees with Pete, and he routinely
sees Red-tails and other hawks perched
closely all year round.  Of course, maybe the discrepency is that Stan
lives in California, the home of raptor romance :) and Pete lives back
here in the East.  But Pete Dunne claimed that non-migratory Red-tails
across the southern portion of their range spend the winters on territory, 
but living separate lives.  This is not true in California.  It is also not
true for Red-shouldered Hawks in the West. 

That is not true from what we see and you (Don) have just seen the same
thing with your own observations.

Stan thinks  David Sibley did a wonderful drawing of a pair of Red-tails
perched shoulder to shoulder on page 68 of "The Wind Masters".

Actually, we may be just now getting the bulk of northern Red-tails coming
into the region.  If you will watch carefully and mark Red-tails down on a
road map,  you may notice a sudden influx in the next few days
as birds are driven in by the snow storms which are in the north.  They
actually migrate big time in late November and into December.

During our years of banding we noticed that the American Kestrel
populations in Sullivan County, TN would swell dramatically shortly
after such an event.  Ken Hale and I went out near Tri-City Airport
where we had few kestrels and, in one morning,  saw 10 kestrels
and captured all of them.  We had that done before noon !  We had
predicted that there would be a big flight in after a major northern
storm and frontal passage.  Laughlin and Phillips also had a big
influx near Kingsport and took a number of kestrels the same day.

One method of our study included carrying a detailed county road map
on every trip, every winter.   We would put a color stick pin
on it which denoted the location of the hawk by species and sex where
that was able to be determined.  We could easily add a number of
Red-tails after a major influx..  We also used color tabs to denote
the birds captured and banded.

This showed us  that some raptor migration into our area comes  in
the winter months.  It is often held in here along with our resident,
local birds.

Hawkwatcher at Mendota and other towers see many kestrels passing
in early fall during migration.  We don't know where those birds
are headed.  They also see "local" Red-tails hanging about on the
thermals and moving up and down the ridge.  When our hawkwatcher
were into staying up on the towers well into November (if not until the
first of Dec.) they would frequently see a number of migratory Red-tails 
with the passage Golden Eagles that come at that date.

We captured a female kestrel at Exide parking lot on Exide Drive
22 Nov. 1979 which had been banded at Warren, PA on 7 June 1979
as a nestling.  We had not seen it in the region that fall.  There was
no bird there until 3 Jan. 1981 when we again captured it from the same
tree.  And still again, there was no bird there until we took the same
bird again 31 Jan. 1982 from the same tree.  Three captures of the
same indivdual from the same tree over a three-year period  -- all in
mid-winter!  Each time it appeared to arrive following a winter storm
to the north.

And, don't forget,  it is only about 10 to 12 weeks until your Red-tails
will be building a nest and mating.

I hope this helps a little.

Wallace Coffey
Bristol

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