Red-tailed Hawks must like roadsides. On the interstate through Wisconsin there’s one of these big birds on just about every mile marker. Predators need space. Maybe this one-mile stretch is what they worked out.
Even on Chicago expressways, Red-tails sit on light poles watching traffic move under them. Ask most drivers if they saw a hawk on their ride and they’ll say, huh?
But Red-tailed Hawks are common. Not just common; they’re everywhere. This added a bit of irony to a birding experience we had in Arizona…
We were riding off the map to look for birds we don’t normally see. The brochure advertised “Horseback Birding Tours.” Our guide was a nice guy and knew the trail, but didn’t really care about birds. So much for truth in advertising. In any case, birding usually involves the luck of the draw.
We did okay. I noticed Gambel’s Quail, Gila Woodpeckers, Rufous, Black-Chinned and Anna’s Hummingbirds, Steller’s Jays and Cactus Wrens (big for wrens). My wife saw a Roadrunner but I missed it. The Gila Woodpecker, an obvious relative of our Red-bellied, was new to me.
We rode through a shallow, fast-moving river and lowered the reins so our horses could see the slick stones on the river bed. The horses knew what they were doing, and stepped carefully.
After the crossing, we saw a large buteo fly heavily out of a tree. Our guide spoke: “Hawk,” he said with the proud smile of a guy who kept a promise.
It was a Red-tailed Hawk, like the ones in Wisconsin, Chicago and everywhere. We all liked seeing it. I’d have preferred one of the west’s Ferruginous Hawks. Still, the ride was good. I won’t forget the river crossing and the intelligence of horses.
But it made me wonder: Is a Red-Tailed Hawk that lives in wilderness any better off than those we see near cars? Do half-eaten burgers tossed on road-shoulders kick butt when compared to skinny jackrabbits? Does being near traffic make a hawk’s day less boring than it would be in quiet wilderness?
We don’t know, and the hawks aren’t telling. Like so many things, it probably just comes down to where you’re born. The luck of the draw.
We have the same “phenomenon” along the Palisades Interstate Parkway here in New York. Particularly along the stretches with a wide vegetated median. My understanding is these medians and grassy shoulders make good hunting grounds. Easy to see and stalk prey such as browsing woodchucks and rabbits, foraging squirrels, or even geese/goslings from the tall trees along the edge. Sadly as some redtails swoop in for the kill, they themselves end up as roadkill.
I hope someone out there will pick up this conversational thread and speculate or draw from science to explain the evolutionary adjustment written about so nicely. Yes, there are reasons for hawks posting along the highways that way. I have never seen one actually swoop after a kill or even work at roadkill like a vulture or crow. I wondered if it is the rodents who have been drawn over time to the open area where tossed food may be available. Perhaps hawks can see them more easily. Some ornithologist or biologist in some college or university department scrounging for a project toward a promotion or tenure surely knows something about this. While I’m at it, how about some of the bobbing motions some species make . . . what is the function of that movement for survival. This morning it was the scrub jay bobbing that made me curious
I so enjoy your writing!
Thanks