CHRISTMAS MISCELLANY

Pinkie is a Laughing or Java Dove. He was found in a snowbank two winters ago. Though he's banded we couldn't find the owner. Since, we've gotten the impression that he may have been a working bird because of a peculiar behavior of his. These guys are the ones you tend to see on Christmas cards and photographed in various Christmas scenarios, right. Interestingly if Pinkie is in a Christmas setting, no matter where you put him he just stays there until you move him again.

Bowie, our fat matriarch cat, spent her time generally watching NATURE on PBS . Specifically the Christmas in Yellowstone episode had her fixated. First it was the Dipper, and now she's watching otters.

See. Otters. No one bugs Bowie when she's watches nature programming. She becomes quite grumpy.

In the midst of it all, package opening and the like--suddenly Silver realizes he really must have a bath. Now this bath thing doesn't seem to be something he has any control over. When the massive urge hits him, about once a month, unless an appropriate receptacle of water is presented for his use, he'll crawl into the nearest liquid, in this case eggnog. Though on a previous occasion it was vegetable soup and on another, Sam's glass of milk. Very strange wiring.

Speaking of strange wiring...Stealth Pinkie, just waiting for this photo op to be over and the next shot to be set up.

The star for the Christmas Tree disappeared somehow so this year, the Red-tail Puppet took it's place.

The sun begins to go down...

...the lights come up...

... new year is coming soon.

COMING NEXT-News and photos of the Horvath Bald Eagle

Portmann Red-tail Photography, Kestrels, and John Blakeman on Red-tail Hunting

A LEAP INTO THE NEW YEAR by Francois Portmann
www.fotoportmann.com/


How cool is this composition of Valkyrie the Thompkins Square Park juvenile female moving into flight!


Speaking of Valkyrie, for more on the meaning and derivation of her name see the comments section on the next post down.


Plus, many thanks to John Blakeman for a correction to that posting--I said that a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk's tail was longer and the wings shorter than the adults. I should have said instead that the juvenile's tail was longer and the wings were narrower than an adults.

Two completely different things.

Photograph by Francois Portmann
Male Kestrel blends right out of a Union Square reflection. Who would have thought?

I can't tell you how relieved I am to see how Kestrels are taking to the urban landscape as there is fear for the species in many of their former habitats. Now if we could just solve the problem of the common issue of their learn-to-fly-from-the-ground-up- fledglings stranding on the sidewalk we'd be near to all set in cities.

The Horvaths foster dozen upon dozen of these youngsters every year and do a grand job but in a perfect world we'd note all the nests and give each one enough branching opportunities to keep the youngsters (or more of them) "up there" instead of "down here" with people.

In the early 1980's, driving down a road in even well spaced suburban areas, let alone the rural areas, every other mile or so, there would sit a Kestrel hunting from a pole, a tree, or wires. This is far from the case now. There just aren't many there anymore. To see none in fifty miles isn't unusual.

Photograph by John A. Blakeman

VOLE TRACKS IN THE SNOW

Remember the James Blank anecdote about the Red-tail swooping seemingly blind into powdered snow and after several hops coming up with a rodent?

And here is Red-tail biologist John Blakeman's answers to our questions about the episode.

Donna,

About the Red-tail that blindly jumped into the snow and came up with a rodent. Did the hawk hear the little mammal under the snow?

Not very likely. Yes, owls are famous for this, but they have exceedingly accurate prey locating systems based upon prey sounds. Red-tails don’t have any of this, I’m sure. They can hear just about as well as we do. And with their smallish ears, they are not able to locate prey by their sounds any better than we can.

But they do have remarkable eyesight, that’s surely what was involved with this hawk and its successful killing of a rodent in the deep snow.

The rodent was almost surely a meadow vole, the primary prey of rural Red-tails. Under the snow, voles create tunnel runways, which after a few days of snow can become quite complex, creating an intricate network of buried, ground-level tunnels from one vole nest to another. I’ve attached a photo of these, taken when the snow was only about two or three inches deep. The runways became visible when the snow started to melt the tops off the tunnels.

Winter Red-tails learn that voles run in these tunnels, and when perched always look for the minute workings the voles reveal when they start to create the tunnels, or when they run in them, or, perhaps in this case, when they periodically “swim” up through the snow to poke a nose out into the cold, clear air, creating ventilation holes.

The hawk certainly didn’t hear the vole. Voles are very quiet in the snow. But she almost surely saw it excavating or moving the snow beneath the surface. From this, she could rather easily discern where the vole was working, allowing her to plunge her foot into the snow to see what she could grab. Being a Wisconsin Red-tail, she’s probably done this many times before.

In fact, this is a real factor in the over-wintering of Red-tails at higher latitudes. Across the northern tier of states, at the northern latitudes, Red-tails seldom, if ever, spend the winter up there. Too much thick snow. The majority of Red-tail prey animals, the voles, can easily avoid being taken by the hawks by remaining in their networks of runways or snow tunnels.

Where there is persistent winter snows, Red-tails have to leave for the season and go to generally snowless areas to the south. Now it’s not fair to say that Ohio, Indiana, southern Wisconsin, and this general latitude of states are snow-free in the winter. We’ve got an inch or two of snow on the ground here in Northern Ohio, and we have lots of winter resident Red-tails.

But our snows are seldom thicker than 6 inches or so, and when they are, they seldom last for more than two or three weeks. A warm air mass comes in and melts things down.

A healthy adult Red-tail can lay on enough fat in late fall to easily go without food for a week or longer, if snow conditions would require that. But longer than 7 to 10 days, things get a bit desperate, and the bird simply starts flying south to snow-free latitudes where the voles are unprotected.

John A. Blakeman

Francois' Friday Catch, Plus Guess What Was in the Tulsa 2007 Nest Besides Eggs?

Photograph by Francois Portmann www.fotoportmann.com
Here she is again! The Thompkins-Square-Park-winter-resident-juvenile-female or Valkyrie for short.

You have to admit the full identifier is a lot of typing or talking every time you want to specify which bird she is. Particularly when the name Valkyrie, and her style truly typifies her take-no-prisoners-personality. Look at the flight shots and tell me you can't hear Wagner in the background.

Photograph by Francois Portmann

There is no question in my mind at least, that this bird has a sweet spot for Francois as she always puts on a show for him.

Mr. Portmann said, "She is a curious bird as you'll see." Indeed she is, as this photograph shows. Her eyes are in mid-flash, as she latches onto a twig in a squirrel's drey. Obviously the squirrel isn't home, but just as a house cat will imagine prey, the chase, and the catch, so she appears to do as well.

Photograph by Francois Portmann
Off she goes again. Look at that focus and energy. And while you're
looking, note the dark patagial mark. (In eastern Red-tails the dark patch on the top edge of the underwing between the bottom of the neck/beginning of wing and the carpals is a species field mark.)


Photograph by Francois Portmann
Here she goes for a skulk across the roof. Eventually most Red-tails learn that sitting patiently in just the right spot works the best in real hunting, but I suspect the younger ones have to get in some dry practice/play before they're able to execute the proper moves. She rather looks like she is sneaking up on that arched inanimate object.

Now how might you know that this bird is a juvenile if you didn't see the color of her tail?

Juveniles have shorter wings and longer tails than adults, therefore their wing tips fall short of their tail tip.

Photograph by Francois Portmann
Valkyrie banks into a turn and cocks her tail for brakes.

We all know what the tail feathers look like, but what about the little feathers that together create light and dark stripes just above the tail feathers?

Those are the upper tail coverts.

And the dark area above the upper tail coverts?

The rump.

Photograph by Francois Portmann

The always interesting urban hawk position when one wonders if they are watching something in particular through the windows?

HBO?

The soaps?

Or using their peripheral vision and not looking forward at all?

Photograph by Francois Portmann
Wow. I believe this wing position is often used by sculptors for Archangels and Valkyries.

Photograph by Francois Portmann
And what have we here?

Francois reports that while Valkyrie was hunting one corner of the park, this red tailed male was hunting another. Though considered a mature Red-tailed Hawk, he looks just over the line as his eyes are still quite light. A two year old perhaps, like Norman of the Morningside Park Hawks was last season?

(Also note the patagial mark on this hawk. He's lighter so it's perhaps clearer.)

Photograph by Francois Portmann
Here he is again.

Look, the wingtips are down there with the tail tips

Photograph by Francois Portmann
And here comes the flight of a Valkyrie...

Baa, pah, pah, baaa, pah
Baa, pah, pah, baaa, pah

Baaa, pah, pah, baaaaa

Photograph by Francois Portmann

And she still looks to have enough energy to do it all over again.

Screen Capture March 27, 2007, Video courtesy of KJRH TV Tulsa

Photographer and Tulsa Hawkwatcher Cheryl Cavert was browsing and guess what she discovered laying with last season's pre-hatched eggs?

One and a half Sycamore fruits.

It's a repeated action in that particular Tulsa nest and it's been observed at least once in a NYC nest.

The Sycamore Fruit Plot thickens.

Donegal Browne

P.S. More on the Tennessee sludge spill from R. of Illinois and Karen of Rhode Island--

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/27/us/27sludge.html