HomeMy WebLinkAboutNovember 13, 1986 - Hawks_ Hunted HuntersHawks: Hunted Hunters
By PAUL STOUTENBURGH
Someone called me the other day
from Indian Neck about a big hawk
they had seen in their area for a
number of days. When they called it
was perched on a telephone pole
along the road by their house. It was
brownish in color with a pale front
that had streaks of brown running
through it.
Hawks are birds of prey which
means they live off other living
bodies and so I surmised that the
hawk must have had good hunting
in the area nearby. From the descrip-
tion of the hawk I felt sure it was a
red -tail. This is one of the soaring
hawks known as buteos. You'll often
see them circling high above as they
glide effortlessly on rising air cur-
rents. If you keep a sharp watch as a
red -tail circles above, when it banks
you will see the upper portion of his
tail is a rusty red in color, thereby
giving it its name.
To make sure of the bird's identity,
I packed up my camera and drove to
Indian Neck Lane and found my in-
formers parked along the road below
a telephone pole with the red - tailed
hawk perched high above. This was
most unusual to see, for hawks are
difficult to approach. All I had to do
was poke my camera out of the car
window and take the picture as Mr.
Hawk surveyed the land.
Good Hunting Grounds
The open field to the east was the
reason the hawk had chosen this par-
ticular spot to perch. It was an aban-
doned overgrown field -- an ideal spot
for mice and voles. Years ago, when
there was much more farming here
on the East End, the sterile fields of-
fered little in the way of food for
hawks. Today, with many of the
farms lying idle, the fields make ex-
cellent territory for rodents and
other wildlife.
Our big hawk migration here on
the East End takes place in Sep-
tember and October when the hawks
that nested in the northern part of
the country decide to move south
ahead of winter's cold. Snow cover
can prove disastrous to birds of prey
that live on rodents hiding and living
below the snow's surface. With the
rather mild weather we had this fall,
many hawks have lingered in our
area, thus accounting for the numer-
ous hawk sightings reported.
The reason hawks are so leery of
man is the long history of misun-
derstanding about the good they do.
Focus on
Nature
When our land was much more rural
and every farmer had chickens,
hawks got a bad name, since every
once in a while they took one or two
of Farmer Jones' flock. These occa-
sional losses created the motto "The
only good hawk is a dead hawk," and
so shotguns came into play and the
hawk population decreased.
Today, after exhaustive studies,
we know that hawks do much more
good than harm. The majority of
their diet is rodents with a wide
sprinkling of other animals such as
squirrels, woodchuck, raccoons, rab-
bits, bats, chipmunks, muskrats,
snakes, skunks, frogs, insects and an
occasional small bird and yes, once
in a while a chicken.
Three Ways to Hunt
The red -tail has three basic ways
of hunting: the high thermal soaring
so associated with this species of
buteos; the low working of fields
somewhat like the marsh hawk; and
the methodical, patient perching
that we often see along our road-
ways. One spot where you could find
a red -tail perched this summer was
on the high- tension wires along
Route 48 in back of Southold. There
was an abandoned grain field that
must have been alive with mice, for
not only did the red -tail hunt there,
but a short distance away had made
his nest in a 40- foot -tall black oak.
Years ago it was almost impossible
to find a red - tail's nest in our area,
yet last year, through the sharp eyes
of a friend of mine, three nests were
found within a five -mile area right
here on the North Fork.
It's good to see these magnificent
birds back in our area. I have chick-
ens, but would gladly sacrifice a few
if it was necessary to keep the red -
tails about. Birds of prey of all kinds
have taken a beating more than most
wild things because of the misuse of
pesticides.
They are at the top of the food
chain where pesticides accumulate
and do their dirty work. Man is
slowly cleaning up his act with the
result we've already seen -- an in-
creased osprey population -- and now,
hopefully, our birds of prey will make
a similar comeback.
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The Suffolk Times /November 13, 1986 /Page I I A
Photo by Paul Stoutenburgh
YOUNG RED - TAILED HAWK - -This handsome big hawk is becoming
more and more common throughout our area. Here an immature red -
tail sits patiently for a mouse in the nearby field to make an unguarded
move. It will be his last mistake.
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