Pale Male, A Prairie Burn, County M Hawk, a Grumpy Cardinal, plus a Sandhill Crane, a Great Blue Heron and a Wild Turkey in Flight

             photo courtesy of palemale.com          
     Beautiful Pale Male looks at the camera.             

 Remember the Red-tailed pair who nested in the oak in the middle of a field off County Highway M in Wisconsin?  Well, they've still managed to hide their current nest from me but I did catch Mrs. M hunting from their old nest tree.  She of course recognized my car and took off before I could her picture perched.

  This male Cardinal menaces another in a male Cardinal brawl at Mud Lake. I say brawl but it was mostly about glaring and posturing.

     A Great Blue Heron Heads for His Night Roost

Dale Dean and Edie Baran of Landscape Restoration start the fire for the  burn of an oak savannah, in which the landowner's house complete with their big propane tank are smack in the middle.  All went well and the mistress of the house wasn't even bothered by smoke coming in her windows.  These folks really know what they're doing.

                                                          Photo by Edie Baran
    (How can you tell this is a photo op during my lunch?  I don't have my gloves on.)

 My apologies for the absence of posts the last few days.  For two days I worked very long days on prairie burns then came down with the flu.  


(Obviously I didn't get the flu from the prairie burns but rather from a cast member in the show in which I'm working as a vocal coach.)


My big excitement at the burns occurred when a stand of Common Reed,  Phragmites australis, that nasty tall invasive that often crowds out the native plants in wet areas given half a chance, went up in flash, leaving me looking at a 14 foot wall of fire.  Beyond setting a small patch of a nearby old cornfield on fire, that I with my flapper (the thing I'm holding above) and a guy with big boots stomping, managed to put out before it spread in the wrong direction.


Speaking of flappers, just how does that flap of rubber tool work anyway?  It can be used two ways.  If you've only got a small leader in the fire making it's way in a direction you don't like, you lay the flapper on it and press he rubber down with your booted foot.  If you've a somewhat bigger blaze that is a problem, you raise the flapper up high and bring it down with all your strength whacking the fire, which blows it out in that area.  And you keep doing it until it behaves or needs stronger measures


If the fire is blazing a bit higher yet but in a controllable line though starting in a bad direction a fire broom may be the answer.  This is a special broom that lives when not in use in a bucket of liquid, I assumed water, but upon thought might have had some additive in it, where it saturates.  When it is needed you pull it out and sweep whatever fuel is in front of the flames, such as debris in a cornfield or dead leaves back into the fire where it burns leaving the area in front of the flames less fuel to spread.


And if there is a bigger problem?  Everyone on the burn was told a height on their body, for me as I'm short a place a little above my knees where if a long flame line has taken a bad  turn, it's time to get yourself out of there, pick up the radio and call for the water truck.

I'd seen the resident Red-tails sky dancing earlier on the property then I spied their nest in a typical location of choice.  Rural Red-tailed Hawks like one of the highest trees available with a configuration that will hold a nest.  That way the nest has a view.  Not only can they see what might be coming at them, they can keep an eye on the territory and perhaps best of all while sitting a nest with not much to do but sit, they watch prey patterns for use later on while hunting.

   Photo D.B.                       A Wild Turkey in flight. 

By the way, that puff of smoke left of center is way back where I am with the camera. It isn't anywhere near the turkeys.



 Not to worry about the birds and animals during this burn, great areas of the habitat are saved and not burned by the slow moving fires every year.  Everybody just moved to those areas of the land which weren't affected for a little while and in many cases then moved right back.  Because of the early Spring there were many green spots that didn't really burn at all.  The fire dealt with the invasive woody stuff, such as Asiatic Honeysuckle and Buckthorn.



Next up from Richard Fleisher, a prof over in the Political Science Department at Fordham in the Bronx and a chief watcher of Rose and Vince--
Writing to let you know that one of my recent photos of the Hawks was selected by Popular Photography magazine as their photo of the day.  It is posted on their Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/ popularphotography) and on their website (http://www.popphoto.com/ photo-of-the-day/04-02-2012).  This shot as well as other recent photos of Rose and Vince can be seen on my flickr page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/profman_wildlife_photos/)

Rich


Congratulations Rich!  Great work and super publicity for urban hawks.  The more people who get to know Rose and Vice and love them, the safer all hawks are!

 The Sandhill Cranes have returned to Wisconsin and are busily finding mates if they need one plus nailing down their nest-sites.


 PROTECTING RAPTORS BROCHURE --For those who haven't had much luck convincing folks that immaculate  sanitation is the only real answer to rats, New York City Audubon has produced a brochure which names the kill-everything-including-your-hawk-child-or-dog poisons in hopes they may be avoided and those with less chance of secondary poisoning for those who just can't live without using rat poison.


Along with tips on sanitation, blocking rat entry to buildings, plus the recommendation that no poison at all be used from March through August when the parents become hunting maniacs to feed their young and inexperienced fledglings are doing their initial hunting.


The brochure may be ordered from NYC Audubon or you may download it online.


 http://www.nycaudubon.org/images/protecting%20raptors.pdf


Donegal Browne

Blakeman on the Unusual Tail Markings of Pale Male's Mate Zena and It Must Be Spring as Everyone Is Back For at Least a Cameo Apperance

                                                               Crop of original photo (see next post down) courtesy of palemale.com

 Ohio Red-tailed Hawk maven John Blakeman on the possible reasons that the tail of Pale Male's mate Zena has unusual markings and is missing some of the "normal" ones--

 

Donna,

 

The horizontal stripe on Zena's tail feather is known as a "hunger trace." It can occur for two reasons. Most often, especially in eyasses (seen in immature hawks, before they have molted to adult plumage in their second summers), hunger traces are from actual hunger, periods of time when the eyass failed to eat enough food to fully grow emerging feathers while on the nest.

 

Feathers are pure protein. An eyass going a day or longer without food will have hunger traces in all developing feathers. Most eyasses have minor, insignificant hunger traces in just the smaller parts of the feathers, not the quills. These are insignificant.

 

But a strong hunger trace that creates a weakness in the shaft of the feather is ominous. The feather is weak and can later break off. The hawk cannot recover from this and will not be able to fly. It will starve.

 

The second cause---perhaps---is a fright response to lightning in thunderstorms. You can imagine, perhaps, the sounds, heat, and light when a lightning bolt strikes a nearby tree. Hunger traces are clearly caused by hunger, but perhaps also by lightning-induced fright.

 

Zena's hunger trace has not caused any problems, as the entire tail feather remains intact and fully functional.

 

In haggards (adults), hunger traces occur only on the feathers developing at the time the trace occurs, which, then, is only in a few flight feathers. A two-day strong rain and storm period could keep the bird from eating. Or, a lightning strike in a roost-tree in August might cause the trace.

 

The lack of a dark band near the end of some of the feathers is a not uncommon plumage variance. The band, across all the tail feathers, is called the sub-terminal band. But a small percentage of red-tail simply have only portions of it, or it's absent altogether. It's absence creates no problems.

 

--John Blakeman

 

Many thanks John, I had no idea what might have caused the aberrations in Zena's tail!

It's that time of year again when the feeding area becomes quite crowded with returning residents and visitors on their way through-and everyone is keeping an eye on everyone else.  Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrel fresh from her burrow meets the beady eyed gaze of a male Dark-eyed Junco. 

Doorstep accompanied by friend both keep an eye on the newly returned female Dark-eyed Junco.  Three female Juncos held out for most of the winter until fed up with the rude behavior of the males of their species during the few bouts of snow, took off for an all girl trip further south.

Note that the feathers on Doorstep Dove's back still remain half raised and have ever since her interaction with the Cooper's Hawk.  Possible nerve damage?  Whatever the case it doesn't seem to have diminished her capabilities one whit.

 Pyewacket the cat, alert at the door, meets the stare of a male House Finch.  Neither gave an inch.

 The Grackle, accompanied by the ground feeding and ever vigilant House Sparrows, having been thwarted by the weight bar on the mixed seed feeder avails herself of the hordes of seed she spilled on the ground as she pumped the bar up and down with her repeated attempts to fool it.

 I looked out the the door and who should be staring back while perpendicular to the goodie stump with the use of her handy rigid woodpecker tail feathers but a Northern Yellow Shafted Flicker.

Here's a look at the splash of red on her head.

 

Note the glimpse of yellow on the rear edge of her feathers.

And when it comes to staring the Common Grackle's yellow, and I admit even at human size, scary eyes take the top prize for potent looks.

Donegal Browne

Pale Male's Mate Zena's Quirky Tail Plus Is that Rue Anemone and Can They Live Through Being Transplanted. Don't Miss the Red-tail P.S!

 Photo courtesy of palemale.com
Some excellent marks, at least currently, to definitively recognize Zena in the field by her tail, from Sally of Kentucky--
 

I only see 2 feathers with a dark terminal band, most just have a white tip.  Plus the right outer feather is pale and shows perhaps a stress mark? Its misshapen.  Good ID for her until she molts at least. :)

It will be very interesting to see if after the next molt she retains the lack of a terminal band on most of her tail feathers.

                                              Photo by Donegal Browne

 A couple dozen of these plants were discovered in a woods that was being cleared of invasives.  As my  Peterson's Field Guide to Wildflowers has currently done a disappearing act,  I'm tentatively identifying them  as Rue Anemone.  Though I'm perfectly willing to be corrected by someone whose field guide hasn't taken a powder or who knows for sure in the first place.

                               Photo by Donegal Browne

By the way, see the red stems?  Each of those stems appears to be an individual plant, though I've not dug them up to make sure.

Speaking of which, I've flagged the individual plants, there are only perhaps two dozen or so in the woods which is marked to become show grounds for the Rock River Thresheree, hoping that the skid steer which is roaring around in said woods removing stumps and Asian Honeysuckle doesn't squash them. Or that the small engines which will be displayed in the woods for three days each year won't take total precedence over these wildflowers which may have been discovered in only the third county in the state (the National Resource Conservation Service only knows of two in WI) where they still live, by the possible insistence of the Small Engines Committee that a road and paths must be installed over the top of where the flowers currently grow for the ease of exhibitors.


Just in case they're doomed where they are,  I've made some inquiries as to the odds of at least some of the the plants living through being transplanted to a safer location. 

Why is it always something?

   Photo by Donegal Browne
 
But back to our inquiry, note that though this plant has much the same shapes when it comes to leaves and sepals as the plants above.  (No, those petal looking things are not petals they are technically sepals.)

  The coloration of the leaves is strikingly different, and the sepals pinker in this model than those above particularly before opening. 


A different species?  A subspecies?


Donegal Browne

P.S. NYC Audubon is collecting information from those of us who are members of the NYC Raptors Group about the location of all known Red-tailed Hawk Nests in all the boroughs of NYC  in hopes of relaying the information to those who are responsible for placing rat poison in the parks in hope of finding some kind of compromise that could help stop the continuing epidemic of Red-tail deaths in New York City.  Particularly as we are now going into breeding season when dense hunting occurs.