A rare hawk takes St. John’s birders by surprise
It was getting close to sunset as Chris Brown returned to his car after a walk on Signal Hill. A bird hanging in the wind on the side of the hill caught Chris’s attention.
It was not a raven. It had broad wings, a broad tail and a stocky body. Chris realized it was one of the hawks from a group called buteos.
They are built for catching updrafts of the wind.
By default, a buteo in Newfoundland should be a roughlegged hawk.
As it disappeared around the corner of a cliff Chris realized something not right about it for a rough-legged hawk. A few theories as to what it could be circulated among the birders that evening.
The next morning the birders were positioned all around Signal Hill. A couple of brief sightings early in the morning confirmed the bird was still there.
Finally, by late morning the hawk presented itself for all to see.
The views were half-decent, but it was the photographs that really clinched the identification as a red-tailed hawk.
It was not the colour of the tail that did it for it had the brown tail.
It was the distinct band of bars across the middle of the chest that, when combined with the lightly marked under wings, produced a classic example of a red-tailed hawk.
The brown tail belongs to an immature red-tailed hawk. Only the adults sport the conspicuous red tail.
Red-tailed hawks are very rare on the island of Newfoundland. Because they rely on soaring to carry them considerable distances, they hesitate to cross large bodies of water such as the Cabot Strait or Strait of Belle Isle where updrafts are all but absent.
That being said red-tailed hawks do not mind crossing the Northhumberland Strait to get across to Prince Edward Island.
The red-tailed hawk is one of the most common and widespread hawks in North America occurring commonly in Labrador and every province and state in the land.
Only on the island of Newfoundland does the red-tailed hawk achieve rarity status.
No doubt the exceptionally hard westerly winds of November aided this inexperienced traveller in reaching the island of Newfoundland.
Out for a ride it came to the end of the road when it reached the eastern edge of the Avalon Peninsula.
For the short term, at least, this hawk has taken up a residence in the Signal Hill and Cuckholds Cove area.
There can be hours between sightings indicating it ranges farther up and down the coast than we know.
Red-tailed hawks eat a wide range of critters from small birds to squirrels but field mice are its No. 1 prey item.
Hopefully it is finding something to catch to keep itself healthy. Maybe it will stay for the winter or maybe it will leave tomorrow.
Yours truly missed seeing this hawk because of being at sea on the Grand Banks.
For this column I am borrowing a picture of an immature red-tailed hawk taken in Ontario by my brother Andrew Mactavish.
It is a very common bird there, however intimate photos like this one do not happen by accident.
Other hawk news
Chris Brown, passionate hawk watcher that he is, noted the return of the peregrine falcon to its favourite roosting spot among the cliffs of Flatrock.
This bird has been returning to the same secluded location among the cliffs for the last nine winters.
As the bird feeder season gets underway so do the encounters with sharp-shinned hawks. In the winter season this little hawk comes out of the woods raiding backyards feeders looking for a lunch of junco or starling.
The sharp-shinned hawk is the default backyard hawk. Similar in size but with more pointed wings and a light moustache stripe, the merlin is an occasional visitor to the backyard in winter.
The northern goshawk is not so much a bird feeder raider but is lured into the urban areas by pigeons.
Their real domain is in the woods hunting for rabbits and grouse. This goshawk is bigger than a crow where as sharpshinned hawk is smaller.
Freeze up
Freeze up is always a good time to look for new waterfowl seeking out the last open areas. For example, a pair of wood ducks turned up at the west end of Virginia Lake in St. John’s.
A horned grebe in St. John’s, first at Long Pond and then Quidi Vidi Lake, was most unusual because it was on fresh water.
The species spends the winter in low numbers in saltwater coves on the southern Avalon Peninsula.
The unseasonal cold weather is sending birds to the bird feeders early.
More and more people are enjoying regular visits from evening grosbeaks. Watch your feeder carefully for any unusual customers at this time of year.
Red-tailed hawks are very rare on the island of Newfoundland. Because they rely on soaring to carry them considerable distances, they hesitate to cross large bodies of water such as the Cabot Strait or Strait of Belle Isle where updrafts are all but absent.