Hooked on Hawks: Blame it on Jerry

Rough-legged Hawk in Davis County, UT USA

Back in 2009 I was on a date with my wife. No it hasn't been that long since we dated. We were on the waiting list at a restaurant and decided to kill some time by checking out the Barnes & Noble Bookstore across the parking lot from the restaurant.  For some reason, a childhood interest in birds bubbled up and led me over to field guides for birds. I decided to purchase one of the guides that night because I found the diversity of the birds fascinating and I wanted to study them further. When my married daughter saw the field guide on my desk at home she asked about it and made a mental note that led her to purchase some inexpensive binoculars for my birthday. One thing led to another and I found myself becoming a "birder".

After about one year of delving into "birding" I wanted to learn more about hawks. I had become familiar with a local club called Utah County Birders and asked one of their members who might help me learn more about hawks. I was told to consider some guy named Jerry who was supposed to be a raptor expert. Jerry was posting occasional emails to a Utah birding listserv and I noticed he did seem to know a bit about raptors when I read his emails. Like countless other newbie birders I sent Jerry a photo of one of the most common hawks in North America and asked for his help. I look at that situation now and realize how little I knew at the time. Jerry responded with the ID for the hawk and shared the important field marks for identifying it as a juvenile light-morph Red-tailed Hawk.

The simple Red-tailed Hawk question I had led to other questions. When I found myself perplexed by trying to decide whether I'd seen and photographed a Cooper's Hawk or a Sharp-shinned Hawk I sent off an email to Jerry. I got a response with some tips on distinguishing between the two look-alike species.  At one time I learned that Jerry had actually written books on identifying raptors so I did a Google search and realized that I was exchanging emails with North America's premier raptor expert. It wasn't too long before I found myself standing on the side of a mountain in Salt Lake City being dumbfounded by how quickly Jerry was able to identify hawks in flight and at great distances. He described how the harrier has a buoyant flight style, compared how eagles soar in large, lazy circles compared to the tighter circular soaring of a hawk, and distinguished between Cooper's Hawks and Sharp-shinned Hawks based on the slight nuances in shape and flight style. I learned later that I spurred one of Jerry's blog posts when I was asking him about subtle nuances that help him distinguish between similar looking species in flight. It made sense when I connected his comments with being able to easily distinguish between my identical twin sons at a distance based on the subtle nuances of posture and movement. Jerry helped me identify my first Harlan's Hawk. Imagine my surprise when I bought a book to which Jerry contributed and I saw an image of a Harlan's Hawk he and I both observed and photographed in Utah. Jerry fueled my fire for gaining more and more knowledge of North America's raptors. In short, I blame Jerry Liguori for getting me hooked on hawks.

Check out Jerry's website: Click Here
Buy his books: http://www.jerryliguori.com/store
Follow his blog posts on the Hawkwatch International website by clicking here.

Here are some images of hawk species I saw and/or photographed for my first time during 2014. I owe a lot to Jerry when it comes to my continued interest and increasing knowledge of North America's fascinating birds of prey.

Harris's Hawk Near Apache Junction, AZ USA

Common Black-Hawk in Washington County, UT USA

Red-shouldered Hawk in Long Beach, CA USA

This one is not a new species, but it was the first time I identified and photo a sub-adult Swainson's Hawk. I credit this ID to having studied Jerry Liguori's books and learning that the Swainson's Hawk is the only buteo that has subadult plumage. Other buteos go from juvenile to adult plumage as they go through their first molt.

Swainson's Hawk Sub-adult in Salt Lake City, UT USA

I'll sign off with a line Jerry wrote in my copy of one of his books, "...and I hope you see lots of hawks!"

Common Black-Hawk in Utah's Davis County

A northern Utah photographer and birder, Dennis Coleman, was out on a walk this past Wednesday at Farmington Bay WMA in Davis County, Utah. He noticed a hawk and captured some images. Click here to see his images. Dennis was unsure of the identity of the hawk so he shared the images on UBIRD, one of Utah's birding listservs. It turned out that he had found and photographed a juvenile Common Black-Hawk.

We have a few nesting pairs of Black-Hawks in extreme southwest Utah during the spring and summer breeding season, but that is several hundred miles south of Farmington Bay WMA. Breeding season has passed and the Black-Hawks should be on their way to or already hunting in Mexico. That is a very long way from northern Utah. We had a hawk that had gone way astray and I'm a nut for raptors. I went to bed questioning whether I should try to relocate the hawk in the morning.

I usually commute to work from Utah County to Salt Lake City, but I decided to drive myself Thursday so I could attempt to relocate the Black-Hawk. I didn't have much time and soon realized the odds were against me as I tried to figure out how to get to the location where Dennis had seen the hawk. I had taken a frontage road running along the west side of Legacy Highway thinking it would take me far enough north to get to where Dennis reported the hawk. Unfortunately, the road forward ended and I was quite shy of the desired location. I didn't want to have to double back, get on the highway and head farther north again. I was giving up and heading to work when I was fortunate enough to relocate the hawk several miles south of where Dennis had seen it. I had made what I thought was a dumb mistake, but it was by dumb luck, as often happens, that I relocated the hawk. I quickly sent out a rare bird alert to the local birding listservs so others would have a chance to see the hawk. I also texted and left a message for Jerry Liguori, Jerry is the author of multiple books and countless publications about raptor identification. In fact, if you've read this far, you should visit his website by clicking here. He also contributes regularly to the blog for Hawkwatch International. We are fortunate to have him living in the Salt Lake area.

I waited for a few other birders to arrive on the scene so I could hand off the bird's location. I wanted to make it easy for others to locate and observe it. Jerry Liguori was on the scene and observing the bird when I left for work. Shortly after I left the hawk flew east across Legacy Highway and then in a southward direction. It disappeared from the view of a group of birders and it hasn't been seen again since. I have a feeling we may hear about it again.

If it wasn't the cloud cover it was the distance that worked against getting crisp images with my 400mm lens. However, I captured images that provide adequate documentation. The striking facial pattern, bulky secondary feathers, dark malar marks, streaked belly, long legs, finely barred underwings, and white tail with wavy banding are visible in the images below. There were no bands on the bird's legs. It is not one of the banded juvenile hybrids resulting from the breeding of a Red-shouldered Hawk with a Common Black-Hawk in Sonoma County, California.

Way-out-of-range Juvenile Common Black-Hawk in Woods Cross, UT

Way-out-of-range Juvenile Common Black-Hawk in Woods Cross, UT

The lines in the images below are actually guy wires from towering antennas in the open fields behind where the bird was hanging hanging out and making short flights.

Way-out-of-range Juvenile Common Black-Hawk in Woods Cross, UT

Way-out-of-range Juvenile Common Black-Hawk in Woods Cross, UT

Way-out-of-range Juvenile Common Black-Hawk in Woods Cross, UT

Way-out-of-range Juvenile Common Black-Hawk in Woods Cross, UT

Black-Hawk Breeding Success in Utah

I'm posting today as a follow-up to a post I shared three months ago (May) when I discovered an active Common Black-Hawk nest in southwestern Utah. You can view that original post by clicking here.

My wife and I were at the tail end of a road trip to three national parks this past weekend and stayed in a hotel in St George, Utah.  I decided to get up early Saturday morning to drive out and check on the nest site. It was my first time back to the area since discovering the nest and I had to make at least one attempt to satisfy my curiosity about whether or not the hawks were successful in breeding. I had shared the location with wildlife officials so they could monitor the nest site. I sent emails on occasion to get updates, but I never got a confirmation that the hawks were successful breeders.

I had often thought about the pair of hawks over the past few months and Saturday presented a short window of opportunity for me. I knew their habits for feeding from my previous observations so I checked those locations at a specific time of day. It took less than 20 minutes to get my first look at an adult bird. I heard what I thought was a Spotted Sandpiper calling from a secluded location north of the adult hawk and ignored it. However, two minutes after walking away from the scene I slowly recalled the sound to my mind and it dawned on me that I was hearing a second Black-Hawk, not a Spotted Sandpiper. I backtracked to the location and kept my cover while creeping through young aspen and willow trees toward the calling bird.

Moments later I was enjoying my first observation of a juvenile Common Black-Hawk. It was proof of successful Black-Hawk breeding in Washington County, Utah. I can't express how delighted I was to see that bird. It looked just like I expected, just like the images I had studied and dreamed of seeing someday. The location of the bird's perch was fully shaded since the early morning sun was still behind a large hill when I captured the image below. Lighting wasn't ideal for capturing details, but I'm pleased to have this image to remember that unique experience and moment in time.

Juvenile Common Black-Hawk #1 in Washington County, UT

Before I knew it I heard and then saw two juveniles at the same time. I'm fairly certain I heard a third one calling farther north of the two, but I can't rule out that it might have been an adult. The second bird was farther from me, but I did get a super-cropped image for documentation purposes.

Juvenile Common Black-Hawk #2 in Washington County, UT

I hope these young birds continue to thrive and return as adults to increase the population of nesting Common Black-Hawks in southwestern Utah. They may become and produce beautiful hawks like their parent below. That would be awesome to witness.

Adult Common Black-Hawk in Washington County, UT
Raised at Least Two Juveniles the Summer of 2014

Black-Hawk Bonanza in Southwestern Utah

I spent a couple of days birding the extreme southwestern part of Utah this past week. I knew I'd see some good desert birds down there as well as some spring migrants and specialty birds in their usual places. However, I had one particular bird species at the top of my wish list for my two-day trip. I wanted to see a Common Black-Hawk. I love the raptors and the Black-Hawk is a rare one for Utah. I had barely seen one in a distant flight a couple of years ago and I've wanted better views and photos of one ever since. Several people had reported seeing Black-Hawks in two different locations down there recently so I knew my odds were a little better this time around.

One birding reference I have estimates that there are fewer than 300 nesting pairs of Common Black-Hawks in the United States. Most of those pairs are found in central and southeastern Arizona during the spring and summer months.  These hawks prefer to nest in remote cottonwood and sycamore trees along streams where they can hunt from a perch as they watch for frogs and others animals that exist around the streams.

My first two attempts to locate a Black-Hawk failed during my recent trip so I decided to try one of those locations again the morning of my second day. These hawks are known to soar most actively during mid-morning hours so that's when I arrived at the location. I didn't see a Black-Hawk when I arrived, but I did see a Peregrine Falcon pursuing a swallow. The Peregrine was unsuccessful in its attempt to catch the swallow so it took a perch on a rocky hillside high above me.

Peregrine Falcon Washington County, UT

I turned my attention to a stand of Cottonwood trees bordering a stream. No birds were soaring so I decided to view the stand of trees from different angles. That technique has been fruitful when looking for relatively large birds in trees on previous occasions.  A single perspective often leaves some exciting things hidden.

Several weeks ago I spotted a Swainson's Hawk perched on a power line. I had never really noticed large hawks perched on wires before and wondered how common that was. Boy was I surprised when I got my first unexpected look at the Black-Hawk I was seeking. I rounded a corner of the trees and there it was perched on a power line, right above an empty field.

Common Black-Hawk Washington County, UT

I couldn't believe I was getting my first close looks at a Common Black-Hawk. It was a beautiful bird. What I expected to be mostly black bird turned out to include some brown tones. I noticed it had relatively long legs for a hawk of its size. It flew into some trees and perched for a few minutes, gave some calls and then moved inside the trees.

Common Black-Hawk Washington County, UT

Common Black-Hawk Washington County, UT

I was so focused on the hawk that I almost wrote off a calling roadrunner as a cooing dove. After the Roadrunner cooed a few more times I snapped out of my Black-Hawk trance and realized I needed to make sure I saw at least one Roadrunner for my trip to the desert of southern Utah. Based on the way the bird was cooing I decided to look for it on a perch rather than on the ground. I spotted it perched on top of a distant Juniper bush at the very top of the hillside near the Cottonwoods. That's one of the joys of birding--understanding bird habitats and behaviors and hunting them down by ear then sight. The great thing about hunting for wildlife with the Nikon is that they all live to see another day!

Greater Roadrunner Cooing From the Top of Juniper, High on a Hillside Washington County, UT

I remembered that I had to check out of my hotel by 11 so I headed back to St George to get that done. After checking out of the hotel I decided to drive back to the Black-Hawk location and spend the last couple of hours of my trip studying the behavior of the Black-Hawk. This time around I was able to meet a friendly man who owned property in the area. He allowed me to view the location from a different perspective so I drove to the opposite side of the trees and realized the hawk had flown to where a second Black-Hawk was standing on the side of the nest. I kept my distance once I realized there was a nest and remained in my truck to avoid disturbing the birds.

Common Black-Hawk Washington County, UT

Seeing two Black-Hawks at the same time at a nest site was just part of the experience. The other part came when the property owner moved his donkeys, mules, and horses into the field from which I was viewing the hawks. The four-legged grazers were drawn like a magnet to my temporary post. They were not shy animals.

A Donkey Takes a Look at Me as I Have My Camera Recording a Common Black-Hawk

The image above provide a bit of the perspective I had on the nest. The nest was about forty feet above the ground and more than 100 feet from me. The little brown spot straight up from the camera and just above the door frame is the nest in the trees. 

One of the two birds perched in a tree across the field from me just before I left the area. The lighting was harsh and sort of washed out the colors. The bird was at rest for a while and eventually took flight. I took that as a cue for me to also take flight and begin the trip back home to northern Utah.

Common Black-Hawk Washington County, UT

Common Black-Hawk Washington County, UT