Roadside Raptors

In addition to a number of Roadside Hawks and Swallow-tailed Kites, other fun raptors are along the roads as we drive between reserves.

Harris's Hawk is familiar from back home in southern Arizona. What a large range this hawk has, all the way from the southwestern US to central Argentina and Chile! The South American race is smaller than the two subspecies to the north. Unlike most hawks, Harris's will often hunt cooperatively in groups. This adult and immature were very close to each other, north of Jorupe Reserve.

An adult Harris's Hawk above, and an immature below

(Photos by Narca)

Just north of these Harris's Hawks, we watch a light-morph Short-tailed Hawk at close range, spiraling upward from the ground with a long, slender snake grasped in its talons. The snake is very much alive and fighting, as the Short-tail attempts to subdue it in midair. Lunch can be a dangerous affair!

Later, after we leave Buenaventura Reserve and drop into the lowlands just north of the Peruvian border (and well south of Guayaquil), these two small raptors are by the road.

Pacific Pygmy-Owl

Pacific Pygmy-Owls are the only pygmy-owl living in the lowlands west of the Andes. Their range extends from western Ecuador all the way through coastal Peru to northern Chile.

Pearl Kite male

At about the size of an American Robin, Pearl Kites are the smallest raptor in the Americas, even smaller than Tiny Hawks. Their size overlaps with that of the Little Sparrowhawk –– these are the two smallest raptors in the world.

Pearl Kites also have a large range, occurring in open savannas and tropical woodland from Central America to northern Argentina. This kite eats mainly small lizards, supplemented by a few insects.

Barfoot Now a National Natural Landmark

Barfoot Park, long loved by birders, herpetologists, boy scouts, and hikers in the Chiricahua Mountains, has been designated a National Natural Landmark in a directive signed yesterday by Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. It joins 590 other locations which have received this honor since the program was established in 1962. The program singles out the best examples of our country's biological and geological features, whether in public or private ownership.

Former view from Barfoot ridge, not far from the Short-tailed Hawk nest

(Photos by Narca)

How bittersweet! Anyone following news of the Horseshoe Two Fire will know that Barfoot was incinerated a couple of weeks ago, in a high-intensity blowout. However, Bill Edwards (District Ranger for the Coronado National Forest) believes that the elements that made it a site of national importance are still present, and that Barfoot will recover, given time. Indeed all of us hope that.

From the press release: "Barfoot Park in the Chiricahua Mountains of southern Arizona supports an unusual mix of Sierra Madre and Rocky Mountain flora and fauna that includes four pine species and 18 other tree species. It also includes more than 15 acres of talus slopes, along with three meadows and two permanent springs. The landmark encompasses 680 acres of federal land managed by the U.S. Forest Service."

The talus slopes are the U.S. epicenter for a very rare rattlesnake, the Twin-spotted. Forested slopes are home to a rare butterfly, the Pine Satyr, which barely enters the US from Mexico. Did they survive, I wonder? Will Pine Satyrs have to recolonize from Mexico, once habitat is again suitable? Some day will Short-tailed Hawks again nest on the high ridges?

Pine Satyr above Barfoot Park, July 2010

Silene laciniata, or Mexican Pink, in the high Chiricahuas

Young Short-tailed Hawk sketched at nest above Barfoot Park

(Ballpoint pen by Narca)

Six places in all were added to the roster of National Landmarks. In addition to Barfoot, they are Golden Fossil Areas near Golden, Colorado; Hanging Lake near Glenwood Springs, Colorado; Kahlotus Ridgetop near Kahlotus, Washington; Round Top Butte near Medford, Oregon; and The Island at the confluence of the Deschutes and Crooked Rivers in eastern Oregon.

While Helen Waited

Our technique on the Short-tailed Hawk vigils has been to split up and watch from different vantage points. Helen and Noel have stayed in contact with handheld radios. We've each had marvelous encounters with wildlife.

Yesterday, the hours passed quickly for Helen, who found no end of entertainment with this family of Cliff Chipmunks.

Cliff Chipmunk family (Photo by Helen Snyder)

She wrote, "These little guys were at exactly the same stage of innocence as the young Short-tail on the other side of the ridge. On Saturday I watched him charging around the outside of a pine tree, snatching at terminal clusters of needles or pine cones––a crazy zig-zaggy dash that took him about 10 seconds, during which time he snatched maybe six times at imaginary prey."

How rich are these mountains, and how rich the hours we spend there!

Waiting for the Short-tails

A wait can be most engrossing. Today I returned to the Barfoot ridges in the Chiricahuas with Cathie Sandell, Christopher Rustay, and Noel and Helen Snyder, again watching for those two young Short-tailed Hawks and their parents. (Incorrigible, you say?)

At the very start of our vigil, Christopher spotted a fledgling Short-tail flying to a snag on a nearby ridge, prey clutched in its left talons. The buffy youngster perched for awhile, gazing around at the wide world, with no attempt to eat the prey it was carrying. Eventually the young hawk flew, and that was the last we saw of Short-tails for the day.

Pine Satyr, in the U.S. only found in the Chiricahua and Huachuca Mountains (Photos by Narca)

However, it was only the start of an interesting wait, high on the ridge. Hilltopping butterflies––Colorado Hairstreaks, Pine Satyrs, duskywings, cloudywings, sulphurs, blues, Weidemeyer's Admirals––lit in the Gambel's Oak and nectared at Penstemon.

In the U.S. Mexican Chickadees only inhabit Arizona's Chiricahua Mountains and New Mexico's Animas Mountains.

Eventually I wandered farther up the trail (although "trail" may be overstating it!) and found a good vantage point for a closer view of a ridge where the Short-tails like to perch. Several large, lichen-draped snags below my feet were home to a bustling family of Red-breasted Nuthatches, a pair of House Wrens, a family of Yellow-eyed Juncos, and the occasional Mexican Chickadee.

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Young Yellow-eyed Junco

As I hiked back, a sudden insect-like buzz announced the presence of a Twin-spotted Rattlesnake. The species is very rare in the US, and the Barfoot region is known for harboring one of the finest populations. Indeed, we hope that the Coronado National Forest plan will grant their habitat here some additional level of protection.

Twin-spotted Rattlesnake

And still we wait for the Short-tails...

Short-tailed Hawks

Last month saw so few postings because I was deep in a manuscript on the first nest of Short-tailed Hawk found in the western US. In May 2007, Helen and Noel Snyder found the nest high in the Chiricahua Mountains, and several of us took turns spending days in a tower blind, observing the hawks' behavior and detailing their nesting biology. Noel was the paper's senior author, and just yesterday it went into the mail to Western Birds, a fine regional journal focused on field ornithology. Now... freedom!

During my sojourn in the blind, the female Short-tail confronted an Apache Fox Squirrel which was climbing the nest tree. When the squirrel was about 80 feet above the ground, the hawk slammed into it several times, driving it leaping down the tree. Here is a drawing that depicts the rout!

Short-tailed Hawk Defends Her Nest

(Pen and ink by Narca)