Taking to the sky with hawk 264292
Many of us are avid bird watchers. Who doesn’t like to watch a dark-eyed junco in a birdbath, a hummingbird almost levitating in front of a feeder, or a robin hunt worms in your garden? Some people take bird watching to a new level.
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) biologists Jim Watson and Mark Vekasy spend hours and hours watching bird movements as part of their job. While it’s fascinating, they’re not doing it just for fun. They’re gathering information on why and how birds migrate and how to increase populations of endangered ferruginous hawks as part of a study on migration and movement of ferruginous hawks and golden eagles.
“Most recently, we banded three sibling nestling hawks in spring 2024 as part of the study, and we’ve radio tagged one as well,” Vekasy said.
Vekasy and Watson found the three hawks in a platform nest site west of Walla Walla in southeast Washington, an area of the state that sees more ferruginous hawks than most. Loss of shrubsteppe and grassland habitats that the birds depend on in other parts of the state has seriously impacted their population numbers and ability to survive and prosper.
“Much of the landscape that this species historically inhabited has been converted to agricultural uses or other human development, impacting nest sites” Vekasy said. “This has also led to less habitat for the hawk’s prey- jackrabbits and ground squirrels in particular- making it harder for the birds to find food.”
Since banding and tagging the three hawks, Vekasy and Watson have been closely following the travels of hawk 264292.. They’re able to track where she goes through the tiny transmitter she wears, which weighs approximately 30 grams (a little over one ounce) and doesn’t impede movement of the wings or legs, feet, and talons, crucial for capturing prey. The transmitter pinpoints locations where hawk 264292 stops, giving biologists a map of her flight pattern (see map below).
Hawk 264292 initially remained in her natal territory for about a month before dispersing about 770 kilometers (478 miles) from south central Washington across the Canadian border. This flight pattern is not uncommon and was likely prompted by the availability of Richardson ground squirrels in the southern provinces in late summer.
In September, the hawk’s transmitter told us that she had left the Alberta area, beginning her flight south for the winter. This is also a common movement for ferruginous hawks that nest in Canada and head south in September each year.
Over the next 18 days, hawk 264292 flew over 1900 kilometers (almost 1,200 miles) to Perryton, Texas. Generally, ferruginous hawks at that stage take the next hop to Mexico, then back north to California for the winter. But she had other plans. Rather than heading across the border, she turned around and flew 580 kilometers (360 miles) north to the sandhills in Nebraska. Based on her direct flight and lack of stopovers, biologists suspect she was running short on fuel and returned north to a good foraging area. Through luck or by following more experienced hawks to traditional prey sites, she found a black-tailed prairie dog town west of Julesburg, Colorado. Hawk 264292 apparently liked what was on the menu and found enough prey to fuel up and continue her migration, because she headed south again and at last check was visiting prairie dog towns near Lamar, Colorado on Oct. 3.
It’s still early in her migration (and young life) so we’re curious to see what she does (and where she goes) next. We know that migration poses a lot of challenges for ferruginous hawks and that only one in three young hawks survive through their first migration.
“It’s not uncommon for coyotes or other predators to catch and kill these hawks before they can complete their migration.” said Vekasy. “And that’s not the only hazard they face. Starvation and wind turbine strikes are common causes of mortality for them as well.”
Even so, we have high hopes for hawk 264292. Since mid-June when she was tagged, she had traveled north to Medicine Hat by mid-August, explored down to the Texas/Oklahoma panhandle by mid-September, and was back up in northeast Colorado by the end of September. We’ll continue to follow her flight path, and piece together her activities.
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife works to preserve, protect and perpetuate fish, wildlife and ecosystems while providing sustainable fish and wildlife recreational and commercial opportunities.
