[wisb] T. Vulture, Odd Raptor Behavior (Dane Co.)
- From: tiger150@xxxxxxxxxxx
- To: wisbirdn@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Sun, 24 Feb 2013 22:11:23 +0000 (UTC)
Today my boyfriend and I got great looks at a soaring Turkey Vulture in
Fitchburg. It was bizarre to see this bird flying around with several inches of
snow on the ground.
We also observed some, what we believe to be, odd raptor behavior off of C-R CV
at the Dane County Airport outside of Madison. Both yesterday and today we saw
3-4 Rough-legged Hawks and twice as many Red-tailed Hawks congregated here.
Many gave us a great view. The strange thing was that these Red-tailed Hawks
were ALL perched on the ground at the airport. I know that Rough-legged Hawks
and Northern Harriers perch on the ground regularly, but the only time I've
seen Red-tailed Hawks perching on the ground is when they had just caught
something. It was clear that a) these birds were just sitting instead of having
just caught a rodent, and b) these birds were not sick. There were plenty of
other places for the Red-tailed Hawks to perch, but they decided that the snowy
ground was better. Has anyone observed this before or have an explanation? We
were thinking that maybe they were trying to sun themselves. Another neat thing
I saw was a light morph female and a dark morph male Rough-legged Hawk perched
right next to each other. I'm assuming that they are a pair, but I didn't
realize that they pair off this early.
Other semi-notable birds heard/seen in the Madison area include Brown Creeper,
Red-breasted Nuthatch, Pine Siskin, and singing American Robin and Northern
Cardinal.
Good *spring* birding!
Alyssa DeRubeis
Stevens Point, Portage Co.
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- » [wisb] T. Vulture, Odd Raptor Behavior (Dane Co.) - tiger150
