3/21/14 Long Lake (northern Hamilton Co.)
Yesterday, at 1:15 p.m., my husband and I had a conversation interrupted by the extremely loud vocalizations of a Red-shouldered Hawk outside our house! The Blue Jays have been imitating Broad-winged Hawks every day (one is going as I write this!), so I fully expected to see a Blue Jay when I looked out the window, but instead, it was indeed a Red-shouldered Hawk! I suspect it was attracted by huge numbers of Red and Gray Squirrels here for bird seed. This also solves the ID of the distant vocalization that I recorded down our road on 3/6/14 (which several folks have also been trying to solve). I kept coming back to Red-shouldered Hawk when I listened to it, but kept telling myself that 3/6 is just way too early for the central Adirondacks (they usually show up in later April and I find many breeding in the Long Lake area - at wetlands that drain into Long Lake). The vocalization that I recorded was very intense. Yesterday, the Red-shouldered Hawk was giving the exact same intense vocalization, which was likely because it was being harassed by corvids (Amer. Crows and Blue Jays) at the time - they drove it away from the house as I observed it. I believe it was back again this morning - I caught sight as it flew away. We have at least 2 feet of snow on the ground (with more lake effect snows every day) and no open water. The weather forecast shows more of the same, with no spring weather yet, so it seems very surprising that a Red-shouldered Hawk would come back so early. (I enjoyed emailing about the recording with Kurt Fox - yes Kurt, it was indeed a "rapid, urgent" Red-shouldered Hawk! Both of us kept trying to dismiss this possibility based on the date. Given how mixed up things are becoming with climate change, it is always best to trust your instincts now!) In addition to this Red-shouldered Hawk, which appears to have returned to the mountains on 3/6/14, we found one on 1/13/14 near Port Henry (perched over a little, open stream) in the Lake Champlain Valley. There have been several other reports of a Red-shouldered Hawk in that area, so I suspect it is the same bird, and that it over-wintered this year. There was also a Red-shouldered Hawk that over-wintered across Lake Champlain in Vermont. Port Henry is around only 200-300' in elevation, and our house is at 2,000', so the weather is quite a bit more harsh here! There are certainly no snakes or amphibians for this bird to eat right now! The day before "spring", 3/19/14, two Red-winged Blackbirds showed up at our feeders for just a couple minutes - the only brief sign of spring all week. It is interesting that Pat & John Thaxton also had a visit from Red-winged Blackbirds that day. Joan Collins Long Lake, NY -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
