Turkey Hen Strategies to Protect Her Poults

As usual when one spies a turkey hen with poults, they are disappearing into cover.

Two little poult heads peer at me as the car creeps toward them.

I wait for the typical disappearing turkey tail feathers into the foliage as I continue to creep along the road..

But wait!

Will wonders never cease; The hen has reappeared.

I get closer but she holds her position and I realize she is looking at something beyond me.

I pass the hen and realize that they hadn't hidden in foliage, they'd laid low behind a rise in the ground.  These poults aren't long out of the egg.  There could be as many as 15 or 20 of them.

Now they all do head into the long grass.

But Mom comes back out having told the little guys to stay in whatever way Turkey Moms communicate STAY  to poults.

This is all very unusual.

And she continues to distance herself from cover, still looking "over there".  Do Turkey Hens use themselves as decoys?  Not that I know of.

Suddenly she turns back and starts to trot toward the bushes.

And the answer to this riddle comes racing out over the gravel to his mother as fast as his little legs will carry him.

In fact he is running so fast he is leaping with each step.  See.  Neither foot is on the ground.

Tail End Charlie makes it into the bushes but Mom isn't following.

As I'd followed her laterally before and as  I didn't turn down the driveway she has decided to go in a new direction, one exactly opposite to the sitting car.

She's going further away but she is also getting closer to the cover as she goes.  The poults are about to expose themselves but it is faster going for the little guys in the shorter grass.

Further away but slightly more exposure.  Mom is keeping an eye on me but also on them.  I wonder if turkeys can count?

The poults are starting to come out but she has started to go in.  Whether they can count currently isn't relevant as vocalizations are currently doing the job of communicating presence.

Mom checks on me.  Most of the poults never left cover and the rest are going back to cover.

Only one poult left exposed and he's going in.

 And then there is nothing left but the tip of Mom's tail.  And a split second later it is as if they had never existed.

Good trick that.

Pale Male and Octavia Update, Big Red at Cornell, Cattle,Geese and Cranes!

Photo courtesy of www.palemale.com/

Hawkwatcher Anna Beth with a Fifth Avenue update!

I knew I would not be able to stay for hours today but I had very lucky timing.  I'd just begun to look at the nest with my binoculars when Pale Male flew in from the north to deliver a meal, a pigeon.  The eyasses perked up and watched him come in and Octavia got down to work feeding.  There wasn't a picky eater in  the group!

Next Up from Ann Feldman of Cornell via the Franklin Hawkaholics Facebook page, she said...

No, Big Red at Cornell is not wearing a ball skirt...those are her (big) babies with their heads tucked under her.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=575772959205543&set=gm.10152158300892029&type=1&relevant_count=1

Once again today I went out attempting to see some Sandhill Cranes with colts.  

I started out searching the conservation set aside wetland with the  pond near where the crane nest had been complete with a guard gander.  Well the goose was in place but not a crane or even a crane head in sight.  I then went down to the next section of land...more of a grassy meadow if a touch wet.

 OH MY!  It isn't a grassy meadow.  It has turned into a pasture.  Note the fresh grass.  Yesterday and since early Spring there has not been a bovine in sight.  But today?  There is a big red steer with some of his friends down the hill.  Wow!  But still not a crane in sight.  I walk up and down the rural road for an hour and a half, checking both sections of land.  Not a crane in sight.  

Magnolia Warbler...that was nice.  Lot's of testosterone filled Red-winged Blackbirds...no cranes.

Which gets me to thinking.  Red-wing Blackbirds are very common in this area and particularly in this kind of habitat.  there is a male Red-wing sitting atop a stalk or whatever about every 20 feet in marshy areas guarding his territory and his nest, but when is the last time I saw a female Redwing.  They are very reclusive.  I realize I've perhaps only seen a female once and there has to be a female for every male as the nest at this time of year is what the male is guarding. 

That said, I get probably 20 Red-wing males at my feeders on any given day...but no moms.  Okay, when the guys are at my feeder who is guarding the territory and the nest?

Just then a bird does a fly-by very close to my head screeching at me in no uncertain terms and lands on a nearby fence.  Yikes!  Guess who?

It appears to be Mom Red-wing who is giving me grief. Talk about synchronicity. She looks like she's going to come at me again, she's quivering she is so angry.    I walk backwards toward the road before snapping her picture.

Then I hear the male calling as he lands in a tree nearly over my head his tail cocking up and down. 

Geez, I'm going.  I'm going.  You were just at my birdfeeder weren't you?  

He is not currently grateful at all.
  
I walk back to the car, pack up my gear, and drive home which isn't really that far away...maybe a quarter mile.  But still a disappointing day...well except the Red-wing interlude.  That was exciting. 

I turn into the driveway and start unloading my cameras.  My cell rings.  It's another crane watcher,  Mike has just arrived and the Sandhills are striding around the newly-become-cattle-pasture like they've been doing it all afternoon. 

DRAT!

I shove my stuff back into the car, jump in after it, and take off again.

 There they are.  Strolling across the back of the pasture trolling for tasty bits.

As the cranes get closer to the cows the female goes down into the little creek bed and the male stands guard keeping an eye on the cows.

Mike having grown up on a farm, reminds me those are not cows.  Those are cattle.  Right.  No big udders.  Cattle.

  I am then distracted by the cattle...okay what is one of these not cows?  A steer.  Ahhh.  Okay one of the steers has sauntered into the gander pond.  For weeks these guys have been hanging out at this little pond.  I don't know if there weren't enough female geese to go around or perhaps all their nests were nearby, at any rate they've all been standing around the pond for weeks doing  nothing much but standing there, at least while I was around.  I suppose they get back to poker and cigars after I leave.  

At any rate this steer is now in their pond and everyone of their eyes is on him.

Evidently the collective stare works as steer decides to get out of the pond and go hang with the others.

That's when I look at the others and the "others" are all pretty much looking at me.  Wow. 

Why?

Mike says, they're curious.  If you stand at the fence they'll likely come all the way over to you.

Really?

I stare back.  It is then that I realize that even though they are all the same variety they actually look different from each other.

The guy on the left it the kind of guy who is always in need of nap while the one on the far right has just whispered  to the one in the center,  "You do realize she has the same color hair as we do."  And center guy, Says "...Right.."

I'm brought out of my imaginary cattle revery...by "Baw, baw, baaaaawl...."

Littlest calf has lifted his tail and his voice and is frolicking.  In fact while the older steers were discussing hair color the little guys have started to rough house. 

 Wait a minute...where are the cranes?

The cranes are still meandering along the little stream and the sun is getting low.   It's time to go.

Who knows what tomorrow may bring if you keep your eyes open?

Happy Hawking!
Donegal Browne
P.S. Quicksilver the African Grey Parrot, decided to land on my head again today in the laundry room, we may not be quite out of the woods yet.

Isolde Feeds at the Cathedral Nest, Franny the Sandhill Crane Bugs Out, as Have the Black-chinned Hummingbirds

Photo courtesy of Rob Schmunk at
http://morningsidehawks.blogspot.com/

Isolde, of the St. John the Divine Cathedral nest, feeds one of the two eyasses which have been sighted so far.  There is still a possibility that a third eyass, who would be the smallest,  may still be in the depths of the nest.  Time will tell.

 I was under the weather for several days and so did not check on Franny the Sandhill Crane, who was on the nest we've been watching.  Well when I went to look yesterday, Franny and her colts had strode off while I wasn't looking.  

Sandhill Crane colts are ready to leave the nest after only a few days at which time they take off walking after their parents, learning about which foods to eat.

If you take a few steps east and turn round, this is what you see.
 

 A blue sky and fluffy clouds float in a stream...

                   Swallows feast on insects overhead.

Now wouldn't flying be grand fun on a summer's day?

                      Yellow Warblers hunt in the thicket.

And a little further down the road, is the wet meadow where we'd originally seen a second crane nest but the grass became to long to observe it.  But there are some interesting things going on here...let's crop this down a little.

 The pond is in the left half of the photo.  Now look just to the right of pond.  There is a goose who has popped her head up, likely on a nest though a few Geese today had goslings.

Now look at the warm brown spot in the grass on the far right.

I think that might be a crane lying in the grass with colts. There is the larger center brown splotch, and up right and up left are two smaller warm brown splotchs.

And then there is the very odd thing that I cannot identify at all in the photograph.  Perhaps you can?

 What are those white things in the center of the photo...my apologies for the blur.  Whatever it is, it is far away and very odd.  Any suggestions?

I then began the drive back to town and just as I passed the place where I had seen the two Red-tailed Hawks with faint belly bands perched a Red-tail flew above the car.

Not much of a belly band.  She's taunting me.  I never could find their nest.

Even this close, not much of a belly band at all.

Happy Hawking!
Donegal Browne

John Blakeman on the Real Scoop Concerning Imprinting in Red-tails, and a Mystery Hummingbird in Wisconsin?

As I mentioned previously, I'd gone to a fund raising event at an all volunteer staffed bird observatory.

As I walked amongst the exhibits and vendors,  I stopped in at the live raptor display area which as usual for this sort of event, has raptors who for whatever reason, a physical problem or because of imprinting issues, are not able to survive in the wild on their own so they are brought by someone who has permits to keep these birds to help educate the public about them.

While I was standing there, a person behind the table told another patron, if I heard it all correctly, that a particular bird had been imprinted on humans who had raised it after finding it under a tree.  The educator went on to say that raptors will imprint on anything they see first,  including an object like a toaster.

WHAT?  Hawks imprint like geese do?  They're precocial?  How did I miss that all this time?  But they don't act like they're precocial.  They don't immediately or at least very soon after hatching trot around following their mother?  But they imprint as if they were precocial.  

A toaster???

This did not sound right at all.  Something is amiss.

Therefore just in case  I had missed something as large as classic precocial imprinting in raptors....  I mean what if an urban eyass hatched, looked up, and saw a human at a window?  Or looked down at the street and saw a human before she saw a parent?  This had never happened so I'm even more suspicious about the comments?  Raptor educators have to train, they have to take exams...

 This could not possibly be true of Red-tails!  Wait!  Perhaps it was just a helper speaking out of turn?  Or perhaps I heard it incorrectly?  Will an owl imprint on a toaster.  If that were true, perhaps that's how "toaster" entered the conversation then?

But when in doubt about Red-tail behavior no matter how sketchy we think what happened was, or how bad our ears might be, we have the wonderful luxury of sending off a missive to our Red-tailed Hawk expert, Mr. John Blakeman in Ohio, which is exactly what I did.  And as usual he sent back an immediate reply, which follows...
  
Donegal,

No, hawks do not imprint in the classic manner of geese or other waterfowl. That textbook behavior isn't how eyasses connect and identify with their parents. If it were, the eyasses would be flying behind the tails of the haggards all summer, in the manner of imprinted ducks swimming  behind the tails of the female parent.
 

Eyasses will, however, become "imprinted" to humans who take a hawk from a nest and then raise it. It's a long story with many details, but in essence the young hawk connects with and identifies the human as its source of food.

 The human can't fly or otherwise allow the progression of summer-learned normal hunting behaviors, so the young hawk becomes permanently mind-scarred, focused solely on the human.

 (An imprinted hawk can never be restored to normal psychology and independent behavior. In my book, I'll tell the story of "Goldie," an imprinted Red-tail I cared for for 13 years.)
 

But no, none of that happens when eyasses naturally connect with their parents in the nest. The imprinting that so occurs is rather weak and quickly terminated when the eyass fledges and has to learn to hunt and kill for itself in a few weeks of summer.

And no, a newly-hatched eyass seeing a big, lumbering human on the other side of a ledge-nest window is not going to "imprint" to that person. It's not whatever the hawk first sees that is moving; it's whatever first and continues to feed the hawk that it connects with.

--John Blakeman

Many thanks John, a splendid clarification as usual.   I thought perhaps I was loosing my mind.  How could I  possibly have missed that somehow Red-tails were precocial at least in imprinting and I never noticed??? 

Speaking of which, while investigating the matter,  I ran across the chart below. It breaks down Precocial and Altricial into finer categories.

As Red-tailed Hawk eyasses are hatched with down and have their eyes open they are considered Semi-altricial 1. 

 While owls are hatched with down but have their eyes closed when hatched, they are considered Semi-altricial 2.

Check out the chart.  I found it fascinating. 

(What is a Megapode?  It is any of 12 species of chickenlike birds (order Galliformes) that bury their eggs to hatch them. Most species use fermenting plants, kind of a compost approach to produce heat for incubation, but some use solar heat and others use the heat produced by volcanoes.)

Characteristics Of Nestlings
(modified from O'Connor, 1984)

TYPE OF DEVELOPMENT	DOWN PRESENT?	EYES OPEN?	MOBILE?.	FEED. SELVES?	PARENTS ABSENT?	EXAMPLES
Precocial 1	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Megapodes
Precocial 2	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes*	No	Ducks, Plovers
Precocial 3	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Quail, Turkey
Precocial 4	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes/No	No	Grebes, Rails
Semi-precocial	Yes	Yes	Yes/No	No	No	Gulls, Terns
Semi-altricial 1	Yes	Yes	No	No	No	Herons, Hawks
Semi-altricial 2	Yes	No	No	No	No	Owls
Altricial	No	No	No	No	No	Passerines

... t = Precocial 3 are shown food.
.....*= Precocial 2 follow parents but find own food. 

Many thanks to Stanford for the dandy chart, for more on the topic go to...
http://www.stanford.edu/group/stanfordbirds/text/essays/Precocial_and_Altricial.html

Then I had another rather mind expanding experience today.  I'd gone out the back door during the gloaming and saw one Hummingbird run another off the feeder.  Not unusual they love going after each other.  But then the winner sat on a small branch of the Magnolia near the feeder and just continued to sit.  Then he went back to the feeder.   Drank.  Then went back to a branch and sat. 

This hummingbird doesn't look like a Ruby-throat to me at all and that is the only species that is found in the Eastern United States normally and...wait just a minute! That hummingbird looks dark purple..

... I went for my camera. Took pictures, in the dusky light. These are going to be BAD.  Went back in, pulled the card, stuck it into the computer and I looked... fully expecting the bird to be a Ruby-throated Hummingbird after all, due to a trick of the light, but.....nope.

Okay, the camera says his back is dark green and his head is black.  Is there some shot which isn't of his back?

He's out of focus but blocks of color are evident.  I wonder if he is still resting, drinking, resting, drinking?  I grab my other camera and go out.

Nooooooo, I forgot to disable the flash on this camera. It isn't really as dark out as it looks, in actuality the same light as above, but the camera just adjusted the aperture as it knew it was going to flash even though I didn't.  

Sorry little guy. Thank goodness he is still going about his business.

 I go back in the house to let him drink, rest, drink, rest, until he goes into torpor.  He has very likely just come on a very long trip.

I grab Peterson's Field Guide to Eastern Birds.  Sure enough he is a vagrant.  He is a Black-chinned Hummingbird and ordinarily he wouldn't be any further east than Texas.

That is a whole lot of extra little hummingbird wing beats.  No wonder he's hungry and tired.  I'm certainly glad the feeder was up.  

Plus my fingers are crossed for him.


Donegal Browne