Inviting raptors to your yard not only makes for pleasant bird watching but also balances the health of your yard’s ecosystem. As predators, raptors will help keep down the levels of small rodents like the mice who are entering your home, the insects eating the tomatoes in your vegetable garden, and the snakes hiding in […]
Welcoming Raptors to Your Backyard Read More »
Do all Red-tailed Hawks show dark patagials? Well, yes, but… Dark patagials (or “patagial bars”) is a well-known ID trait for light-morph Red-tailed Hawks, but some show very faint patagials, appearing as if they lack dark “bars” altogether. This is more common with juvenile Red-tails than adults, and with Eastern Red-tails rather than Western. Interestingly,
Red-tailed Hawk Patagial Marks Read More »
Another week seems to have passed as quickly as a Peregrine Falcon dive bombing a Sharp-shinned Hawk. Seriously though, that was a sight we witnessed right next to us on the obs. Peregrine Falcons not only resemble fighter jets (or really the other way around), but they sound like them, too when they hunt right next to your
Chelan: Peregrine v Sharp-shinned Read More »
Raptor migration is in full swing, and nothing is more exciting than observing thousands of hawks headed toward their wintering grounds (or breeding grounds in the spring). One North American raptor species we don’t often hear about during migration is the Ferruginous Hawk. Although a few are observed each season among several of our sites, they
Ferruginous Away – Migration is on! Read More »
Greetings from the Grand Canyon HawkWatch crew! Our second week of migration started out rough last weekend with powerful southerly winds maxing above 30 km/hour. Unfavorable conditions persisted until Wednesday when the winds finally shifted, and we had our biggest day of the season so far, with 62 migrant raptors passing observation, and we were full of
Cool Sightings at the Grand Canyon Read More »
