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Birds Of Prey - 4/11/2010 8:54:01 PM   
Sanity


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Here's a place to post your raptor questions or your news stories or your personal stories, or other links and observations!

Raptors interest me primarily because many scientists who are in a position to know tell us that birds are direct descendants from dinosaurs. Think of that - birds are quite possibly dinosaurs among us - and as I watch raptors in action, deep down inside of me I know that they are dinosaurs.

In downtown Boise there are peregrine falcons which raise broods of their young on certain building ledges very near where I work, and I get to watch them fairly closely. And almost every day this time of year the adults are mating, and they dive and scream at anyone who goes out onto the high-rise roofs (myself included) to let us know who is boss, and they get amazingly close. These birds are brave beyond words, and they're very large up close, especially the females. And when they're coming at you and you know that their talons and their beaks are razor sharp, they tend to earn your respect!

Every summer a few of the chicks glide to the ground while learning to fly and sometimes it falls on me to watch over the grounded chicks while waiting on Fish & Game officers to come down and rescue them and return them to their nests. Occasionally I also get to help tag the chicks as well, and I've got some amazing pictures I will share later on in the thread.

Also, living in Idaho I am surrounded by wild places, many of which are near where I live and I love to go to fishing or hiking and watching all the different raptors in their native habitat. Just last Saturday for example I went hiking in Hells Canyon, which is a wild and scenic area bordering Idaho and Oregon - the deepest canyon in North America, and home to all kinds of wildlife. I saw two huge eagles soaring high above the canyon rim there, and I also saw three turkey vultures right beside the road feasting on roadkill deer.

More on all that later, pictures included (I promise). I didn't take photos of the eagles because my Canon camera doesn't zoom far and experience tells me that when I shoot photos of soaring raptors all I see in the picture is their silhouette against the bright sky, and I've got tons of images like that. But I did get a few good shots of the Turkey Vultures, though from a slight distance. (I didn't want to stop the car too close to them, for fear of disturbing them). I thought they were turkey vultures, at least, but now I'm almost wondering if they weren't condors.

Anyway, here's an interesting news story about a pair of eagles to start this thread off with a bang!

quote:


Alaska eagle survives plunge after mating dance


ANCHORAGE, Alaska – An acrobatic display of passion proved too much for a pair of eagles engaged in a mating dance over Alaska's Prince William Sound.

The female bird is recovering from an injured wing and other injuries sustained when the couple slammed beak-first into a hard snowbank in what her rescuers believe was an aerial courting ritual gone awry. The male eagle died in the impact, which left the birds buried upside down at least two feet in the snow in the town of Valdez.

It's mating season for eagles, who perform an elaborate ritual where they clasp talons and spiral toward the ground. This pair probably got caught up in the throes of the moment, said Bob Benda, a bird rescuer and biology professor at Prince William Sound Community College who was among those responding to the Easter Sunday crash.

"They just lose track of what they're doing and don't know how close they are to the ground," he said. "It's raging hormones or something."

Full article here


Hey - I can relate... 

The wounded female - poor girl!








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< Message edited by Sanity -- 4/11/2010 9:01:35 PM >

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RE: Birds Of Prey - 4/11/2010 8:59:21 PM   
DesFIP


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Status: offline 		Peregrine falcons are thriving in Manhattan. All those concrete canyons offer nesting sites and lots of pigeons for dinner. Here, two hours north of the city we have two mating pairs of bald eagles on the mountain behind my house. It's not uncommon to see them swooping above you. And I cherish the memory of coming around a corner, finding a traffic jam caused by everybody gawking out their windows at an eagle eating a road kill deer.

Come October you can climb the mountain and be almost in touching range of the migrating raptors. Hawk Watch at the Mohonk Preserve is something else.

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RE: Birds Of Prey - 4/11/2010 9:04:30 PM   
belladevine


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I went to the Raptor Center in Charlotte NC. It was an impressive sanctuary for many species.

Luckily I was visiting during feeding time and I got to see a huge owl catch a baby chick out of the air with 1 claw.

The owl gripped the whole chick and chomped it's whole head off in one big gulp.

It was definetly an inexpensive visit to tour the center and worth every dollar spent there.

I would say that it was very educational and the raptors recieve excellent care....but not so good care for baby chickens.

O well, live and learn or die trying.


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RE: Birds Of Prey - 4/11/2010 9:08:53 PM   
Sanity


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Awesome, Celeste. Eagles are incredible to see up close in the wild. I encountered one that was feasting on a carp that it had caught in the Snake River, just south of here at the Swan Falls reservoir. I was walking along a trail by the river with my fishing pole and came around a boulder and there it was, just a couple of feet in front of me. As it flew off I could feel the wind that its wings generated and I could see the anger in its eyes.

What a fantastic beast!




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RE: Birds Of Prey - 4/11/2010 9:11:08 PM   
ElectraGlide


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Status: offline 		Eagles, Osprey and Hawks are all over the place here on the Upper Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. I have been lucky to get several good pictures of them. Here is one of my favorites.


http://i177.photobucket.com/albums/w237/ElectraGlide_David/IMG_7073.jpg

< Message edited by ElectraGlide -- 4/11/2010 9:16:54 PM >

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RE: Birds Of Prey - 4/11/2010 9:19:22 PM   
Sanity


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Nice, he's studying you in that picture. How large was he?


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RE: Birds Of Prey - 4/11/2010 9:24:57 PM   
DesFIP


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Status: offline 		What we have a lot of are red tailed hawks. And turkey vultures. Since car-deer interactions are very common, it's equally common to see a flock of vultures cleaning up the deer. I think it took 8 of them a day and a half to strip a carcass some years back.

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RE: Birds Of Prey - 4/11/2010 9:29:08 PM   
ElectraGlide


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Status: offline 		I am not sure how big it was Sanity. It was on a cliffs edge not far from me. I had a straight ahead camera shot on it. It never flew away like most birds of prey do. Here is the whole page link of other pictures of it. I am not sure if it was a Female Eagle, or a young adult.

http://s177.photobucket.com/albums/w237/ElectraGlide_David/?start=120

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RE: Birds Of Prey - 4/11/2010 9:33:23 PM   
slvemike4u


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quote:

ORIGINAL: DesFIP

Peregrine falcons are thriving in Manhattan. All those concrete canyons offer nesting sites and lots of pigeons for dinner. Here, two hours north of the city we have two mating pairs of bald eagles on the mountain behind my house. It's not uncommon to see them swooping above you. And I cherish the memory of coming around a corner, finding a traffic jam caused by everybody gawking out their windows at an eagle eating a road kill deer.

Come October you can climb the mountain and be almost in touching range of the migrating raptors. Hawk Watch at the Mohonk Preserve is something else.
Des,I wasn't aware you were a fellow New Yorker...though from your post it would seem you are actually from that other New York...yanno the one that isn't New York City...lol.
Growing up in Queens one never saw these wonderful birds outside of the trip to the zoo or while thumbing thru magazines and such.When I got older and moved out to the Island I got to see a lot more of them....Golf courses are perfect enviorments for these hunting birds...lots of open spaces and lots of food sources.
As I was walking up the fairay at Bethpage one day I looked to my right...just off the cut...and their on the grass was a falcon tearing into it's dinner...what a primal and yet a beautiful example of nature in all of its glory.This Falcon was just effortlessly tearing up din din....intestines and stomach stuff just being ripped to shreds...okay ,perhaps too much information for the squemish amongst us...let me just say,not much on table manners but impressive as hell.
Now that I'm down in North Carolina seeing these wonderful majestic birds is a daily occurance,,,but to a kid from Queens it still has the power to make me stop and stare....one of these days I will crash my car doing that.

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RE: Birds Of Prey - 4/12/2010 6:24:01 AM   
Sanity


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Banding a peregrine chick





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RE: Birds Of Prey - 4/12/2010 6:25:43 AM   
Sanity


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A very angry mommy and daddy in the skies over Boise. The hat is used to wave them away, and give the parents
something to strike at other than flesh as the babies are being banded







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RE: Birds Of Prey - 4/12/2010 6:31:44 AM   
Sanity


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Here I am in Hells canyon a week ago. The wild flowers are in bloom, and the temperatures are perfect for hiking this time of year.




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RE: Birds Of Prey - 4/12/2010 7:09:01 AM   
Sanity


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Anyone who is too squeamish has no business clicking on a thread entitled "Birds Of Prey" to begin with, mike!

Bird parts litter the rooftops and ledges of any buildings that falcons inhabit, and the quantity of pigeon and robin parts that we see indicate that they're the favorite prey around here, although there were parts of a small goose mixed in with everything else a few years back.

A few of the office workers with window seating have reported seeing things that they'd rather not, to be sure. Some even want the falcons driven off, if you can imagine.

I can't, I love these birds, and everything about them.


quote:

ORIGINAL: slvemike4u
Des,I wasn't aware you were a fellow New Yorker...though from your post it would seem you are actually from that other New York...yanno the one that isn't New York City...lol.
Growing up in Queens one never saw these wonderful birds outside of the trip to the zoo or while thumbing thru magazines and such.When I got older and moved out to the Island I got to see a lot more of them....Golf courses are perfect enviorments for these hunting birds...lots of open spaces and lots of food sources.
As I was walking up the fairay at Bethpage one day I looked to my right...just off the cut...and their on the grass was a falcon tearing into it's dinner...what a primal and yet a beautiful example of nature in all of its glory.This Falcon was just effortlessly tearing up din din....intestines and stomach stuff just being ripped to shreds...okay ,perhaps too much information for the squemish amongst us...let me just say,not much on table manners but impressive as hell.
Now that I'm down in North Carolina seeing these wonderful majestic birds is a daily occurance,,,but to a kid from Queens it still has the power to make me stop and stare....one of these days I will crash my car doing that.


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RE: Birds Of Prey - 4/12/2010 7:28:08 AM   
DomKen


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Status: offline 		We've got several pairs of Peregrine nesting around Chicago. Several years ago a pair nested on the Evanston public library and a succession of mated pairs has come back each year. Here's a webcom of the nest and some pics and the details.
http://www.epl.org/falconcam/

Watching them hunt is an amazing experience.

I have spent many hours over my life on various parts of the Tennessee River and it is amazing the recovery the raptors have made. In the 1970's it was big news to see anything besides vultures and red tailed hawks. Now Bald Eagles nest so densely along the lakes that it is easy to find a good spot and watch them fish (and fight with each other over fish).

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RE: Birds Of Prey - 4/12/2010 8:57:48 AM   
slvemike4u


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Status: offline 		Ya know when I think about it I identified the dining bird as a falcon...let's be honest here,as a kid from Queens New York City...I don't have a freakin clue.In all probability what I saw chowing down would have to have been a Hawk...I seem to remember reading that there are good sized populations of such hunters on the Island.....Falcon's I'm not so sure of.

As a total aside....that has to be one of the,if not THE friendliest exchanges we have ever had Sanity....from where I sit it was most refreshing

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Forget Guns-----Ban the pools

Funny stuff....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNwFf991d-4


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RE: Birds Of Prey - 4/12/2010 9:17:47 AM   
LaTigresse


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Status: offline 		We have many varieties of birds of prey. Especially where I live. I am very near a river but also at the edge of some timber and on a hill over looking some prairie ground. I see several varieties of owl regularly. Big Great Horned Owls that have the cat living in permanent fear to cross the pasture, to little but loud, Screech Owls. I also love the little Barn Owls. We have several varieties of hawk, with the Red Tail being the most common. We get a lot of Bald Eagles, especially during the winter and the occasional, but rare, Golden Eagle. I've only seen one, twice.

We've tons of Turkey Vultures. The summer sky always has a few circling above. They are everywhere.

My all time favourite bird of prey has got to be the American Kestrels. We almost always have a few nesting nearby. Usually a pair in one of the mature oaks. They are, to me, the most beautiful of all.


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RE: Birds Of Prey - 4/12/2010 2:12:39 PM   
flcouple2009


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Status: offline 		When we lived on the East Coast of FL there were several different birds that nested on some of the towers for the high power lines.  We spent a lot of time fishing out on the river and would often see Ospreys, Eagles, and Hawks.  We often were able to watch the Osprey catching fish which was a real joy.

Not a bird of prey but we lived on a large lot and had a Heron who came and visited every evening.  We would sit with the kids and watch him/her walk the property often stopping to pull a snake out of a hole.  Most of them were small grass snakes but if not for the Heron we would have had no idea how many were actually there.

< Message edited by flcouple2009 -- 4/12/2010 2:13:15 PM >

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RE: Birds Of Prey - 4/12/2010 4:17:43 PM   
DesFIP


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quote:

ORIGINAL: slvemike4u

Des,I wasn't aware you were a fellow New Yorker...though from your post it would seem you are actually from that other New York...yanno the one that isn't New York City...lol.

Growing up in Queens one never saw these wonderful birds outside of the trip to the zoo or while thumbing thru magazines and such.When I got older and moved out to the Island I got to see a lot more of them....Golf courses are perfect enviorments for these hunting birds...lots of open spaces and lots of food sources.
As I was walking up the fairay at Bethpage one day I looked to my right...just off the cut...and their on the grass was a falcon tearing into it's dinner...what a primal and yet a beautiful example of nature in all of its glory.This Falcon was just effortlessly tearing up din din....intestines and stomach stuff just being ripped to shreds...okay ,perhaps too much information for the squemish amongst us...let me just say,not much on table manners but impressive as hell.
Now that I'm down in North Carolina seeing these wonderful majestic birds is a daily occurance,,,but to a kid from Queens it still has the power to make me stop and stare....one of these days I will crash my car doing that.


Mike, where in Queens? I'm from Bayside. I can amuse my kids no end by lapsing back into that nasal Queens accent. The one Fran Dreisher had down pat on The Nanny.

Lived in Manhattan till the market crash on 89 then moved upstate where we had a weekend place. I get in every couple of weeks to see my Dad who is still in Manhattan.

But yes, I can sympathize with losing control of the car when an amazing bird comes by. Pileated woodpeckers come under that category also. I brake for bears and coyotes.

Oh and a couple of weeks ago Chelsea was all abuzz as it took two days for New York's Finest to capture a wily coyote. Must have wandered out of Central Park.

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RE: Birds Of Prey - 4/12/2010 4:27:28 PM   
Sanity


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We had some huge owls of some kind that lived in some trees a few fields over from my place for ages, but I haven't seen them since the trees were trimmed about five years ago. Sometimes at night though, I hear what sounds like the screetching of some kind of a large bird of prey overhead in the dark - and funny you should mention it, but I had a favorite old cat of mine disappear with a quick loud  "rowr" sound in the middle of a hot summer night a few years back. There wasn't a trace of him to be found anywhere the next day, and my theory is that it was either a coyote or an owl that got him, though we do have badgers and foxes and things around here as well.


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RE: Birds Of Prey - 4/12/2010 5:10:27 PM   
slvemike4u


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quote:

ORIGINAL: DesFIP

quote:

ORIGINAL: slvemike4u

Des,I wasn't aware you were a fellow New Yorker...though from your post it would seem you are actually from that other New York...yanno the one that isn't New York City...lol.

Growing up in Queens one never saw these wonderful birds outside of the trip to the zoo or while thumbing thru magazines and such.When I got older and moved out to the Island I got to see a lot more of them....Golf courses are perfect enviorments for these hunting birds...lots of open spaces and lots of food sources.
As I was walking up the fairay at Bethpage one day I looked to my right...just off the cut...and their on the grass was a falcon tearing into it's dinner...what a primal and yet a beautiful example of nature in all of its glory.This Falcon was just effortlessly tearing up din din....intestines and stomach stuff just being ripped to shreds...okay ,perhaps too much information for the squemish amongst us...let me just say,not much on table manners but impressive as hell.
Now that I'm down in North Carolina seeing these wonderful majestic birds is a daily occurance,,,but to a kid from Queens it still has the power to make me stop and stare....one of these days I will crash my car doing that.


Mike, where in Queens? I'm from Bayside. I can amuse my kids no end by lapsing back into that nasal Queens accent. The one Fran Dreisher had down pat on The Nanny.

Lived in Manhattan till the market crash on 89 then moved upstate where we had a weekend place. I get in every couple of weeks to see my Dad who is still in Manhattan.

But yes, I can sympathize with losing control of the car when an amazing bird comes by. Pileated woodpeckers come under that category also. I brake for bears and coyotes.

Oh and a couple of weeks ago Chelsea was all abuzz as it took two days for New York's Finest to capture a wily coyote. Must have wandered out of Central Park.
Woodhaven,Queens....A Haven in the City....that Nanny accent was Queens?   Bayside must have been weird...lol.
Come to think of it there were a pair of hawks that called Forest Park Golf Course home....but as I didn't play much golf at the time...and only used the public course for nefarious night time activities...I never really caught sight of them....I still have not discovered a better use for a putting green than exploring Katy's unmentionables.

< Message edited by slvemike4u -- 4/12/2010 5:11:22 PM >

_____________________________

If we want things to stay as they are,things will have to change...Tancredi from "the Leopard"

Forget Guns-----Ban the pools

Funny stuff....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNwFf991d-4


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