The wild hawk stood with the down on his beak and stared with his foot on the prey.
~Alfred Lord Tennyson
While Melissa is out with her teacher workshop, I have been busy observing wildlife in the park. Not the usual megafauna of wolves and bears, but some of what most people claim to be “less glamorous” species from trout to dragonflies. Most birds also tend to fall into that category but I decided to spend yesterday trying to observe feeding behavior at three raptor nests visible from the park roads. We have watched these nests before and seen the nestlings, but I wanted to try to film the adults feeding their young. It turned out to be a 7-hour marathon requiring patience and lots of discussion with park visitors.
All three nests are across a river from pullouts along a road and are on steep or inaccessible terrain making them safe from human disturbance. Here is what the nest sites look like from the roads. These images are taken with a telephoto lens so you can see why most people never see them as they drive by (although the osprey nest is fairly visible if you are paying attention).
I started with the red-tailed hawk nest which is probably the least known of the three. I sat in a folding chair next to my car with my phone attached to a spotting scope (with a Phone Skope adapter) for about 90 minutes watching the nest (a full 30 minutes before the adult bird showed up). During that time, fewer than 10 vehicles stopped and only 4 where someone got out to ask what I was looking at. And when I showed two of those the hawk babies through the scope, they said “cool, have you seen any bears”? Birds get no respect:)
I had hoped to get the adult bird flying into the nest with prey but in all three nests I missed that as the birds came in so quickly and it takes a few seconds for the camera to turn on and focus once you hit the buttons. The hawk brought in a rodent of some sort, perhaps a Uinta ground squirrel based n the color of the fur. For the next 56 minutes, the adult hawk tore into the prey item feeding bits of it to the hungry nestlings. Enlarge the videos to full screen for best viewing.
–Note how the smallest chick often sneaks bites from between the adults’ legs
Unlike songbirds, raptor chicks hatch in the order the eggs are laid causing size disparities in the young with the first to hatch generally being the largest. The older chicks often get fed the most because of their larger size and aggressiveness.
After almost 30 minutes of feeding, the two largest chicks were full. The adult starting pecking at the carcass and then attempted to swallow the remains, which required some effort to get down.
–The adult hawk finally leaves the nest after gulping down the remains of the meal
I next moved on the peregrine falcon nest site. Falcons have nested in this section of the canyon for many years and word spread early this year about the location of this year’s nest. It is in a small crack in the vertical canyon wall across the river from a couple of pullouts. The overcast day provided better light as the shadows can be very dark on sunny days. As I was getting the scope set up, the adult falcon flew in with a prey item which I assumed was another bird. On previous visits we had seen a northern flicker and perhaps a dipper brought in to feed the chicks. It wasn’t until I reviewed the footage on the computer that I discovered the prey was a rodent! I can’t quite tell what it is so if you have thoughts, let me know. I was amazed, but studies show that although most of a peregrine’s prey is bird life, they do occasionally eat insects, small mammals, and even reptiles.
–The adult falcon bringing in a rodent to feed its young
This nest originally contained 4 chicks. Research indicates that peregrine’s usually lay 3 to 4 eggs but have a survival of an average of 2 young per nest. You can see the size differences here. We watched a feeding a few days prior to this and the noticeably smaller fourth chick received very little food as it was positioned behind its much larger siblings during the feeding. We later learned that chick died and was fed to its siblings. This is not an unusual fate for the smallest young in a raptor nest, especially if it is a year with sparse prey availability.
This feeding was much quicker than that at the red-tailed hawk nest and it seemed the adult bird ate more of the prey. I believe the noticeable paired bulges on the necks of the young birds is from the food in their crop. As the food moves into their stomachs, those bulges disappear.
My last stop was at the osprey nest. This is a popular visitor stop as the pullout is quite large and many people stop to observe the nest. I had a lot more interaction with visitors at this location. I posted earlier this spring about watching the pair refurbish the nest by breaking off limbs from trees along the river and flying them back to the nest. I waited here for well over an hour before the male brought back a trout for the young (studies show that the male usually does all of the fishing during nesting). The female quickly started tearing off pieces and feeding the chicks. It seemed that she was more equitable in her feeding then the other two raptor species I had watched earlier.
You’ll see one of the chicks squirt its poop over the edge of the nest at the start of the clip. After the feeding, the female flew for a couple of minutes, no doubt for some well-deserved alone time. The male stayed on the branch next to the nest. When she returned she did a little house-keeping and moved a stick to a new spot. A nearby lightning bolt encouraged me to wrap up an incredible day of observing raptors raising their young. The spotting scope and phone combination provides some incredible insights into the lives of these amazing birds.
Roads End Naturalist 