The Swainson's Hawk
Yesterday I spotted this hawk alight in an old pine tree on the street behind our house. This picture taken with my little photo lens turned out quite well, considering my shaky puddin'. TH (the hubby) thought the tree reached about 30 feet, but I think it was taller.I couldn't identify the raptor - so I sent the photo by E-mail to my Audubon friend.
He and his wife happily informed us that it is a Swainson's Hawk. This bird winters in Argentina and, after one of the longest migrations of all hawks, summers in the central and northwest United States and Canada.
Apparently there are several mating pairs that are nesting in our valley. This one must have stopped to rest during his search for a meal.
This hawk is endangered because of loss of habitat in the United States, and because of DDT usage in South America. I read that the population had decreased by 90% in Central California alone.
What a coincidence to see an article in the local AGRI-TIMES today pointing to Wind Farms as another serious problem for the low flying hawks. My Audubon contact said "The blades turn at over 100 miles per hour" and that the "hawks get confused" and think they can fly through them. The good news is that some Wind companies are monitoring and studying ways to minimize bird and bat kills.
Isn't that just Murphy's Law? We find a clean source of energy, then fear that it may be lethal to the feathered friends. The noise generated by the turbines may also disturb the ground nesting birds. (see the Killdeer in an earlier post.)
Wind Farms silhouette the hilltops around my valley. I pray that my hawk stays close in and rears a healthy brood.
I'm will watch for him/her through the remaining spring and summer.
Comments
BTW, I see no similarity to a monkey in either of the "sensible" photos.
We just saw two of those at our place yesterday. I didn't know which hawk they were, but now I know. It appeared to be a pair, and I really hope they are staying. They were swooping around, landing on telephone poles right by me. I could see them really clearly, but didn't have a camera in my hand, in order to save it from the garden dirt I was digging around in.
Elizabeth Joy
xo
"Nothing is entirely good or entirely evil"
Kailani
An Island Life
I try to be an optimist. It's not all bad news regarding wind turbines. Efforts are being made to improve them. The newer turbines are significantly quieter than the old ones, they are more efficient so don't need to rotate as fast to generate the same amount of electricity and lots of organizations are pressuring manufacturers and power companies to resolve the collisions issue.
If people care enough, we can make a change for the better. Read some of the historic accounts of the air pollution in urban centers when coal was the only source of heat and power or before sewers and waste treatment plants existed. I'm glad I'm living in NYC now and not in the mid-1800's!
We're progessing, just not as fast as we'd like to (or could).