Highway Hawk

On the days that I head into the office, better known as Kevin’s basement, I drive a sizable length of a major highway and without fail I see at least two or three Red-tailed Hawks. If it is a few hours after sunrise on a cold but sunny day there may be a dozen or more along a 10 mile stretch. Some are even pairing up, sitting close together.

Red-tails spend about 95% of their day sitting and waiting – it is their modus operandi – peering down, turning their heads side to side, always on the look out for prey below them. They favor a diet of voles and other small rodents, as well as rabbits and squirrels. On occasion they will take birds.

This afternoon on my return journey I caught sight of a Red-tail as it landed on the grassy median strip and mantled its prey. Mantling is a really neat sight to see, as the hawk fans its tail and spreads out its wings to cover the prey it has just captured. It does this in order to protect it from any other raptor that might have just seen the kill. When it is all safe it will either begin feeding right there or fly away with the rodent in its talons to a nearby perch.

Red-tailed Hawks are one of North America’s most abundant raptors and certainly in the east their numbers have been increasing. They favor open country with fragmented woodland. Exactly what we have been doing to our landscape over recent decades!

Why is it that we see so many along our highways? Certainly in winter the deciduous trees are bare and immature birds increase the numbers. Maybe it is that as we drive long stretches of boring road, a white bellied object sitting in a tree is relatively easy to spot? While those are all valid reasons, a great deal of the roadsides, median strips and interchanges are covered in mowed short grass. You will undoubtedly notice that these areas have light poles, highway signs and a handful of tall trees, all of which make an ideal location for a raptor to perch patiently. I know that we rarely see small rodents, but there is a large population and the short grasses and low perches that we have created make it easier for the raptors to locate them.