Subject: Re: R-T Hawks
Date: Mar 30 10:12:49 1995
From: Dennis Paulson - dpaulson at ups.edu


>Could someone enlighten me a little. There is all this talk about Red Tails
>and here in the Sammamish valley they are resident year round. Do they
>leave and return to other areas of Puget Sound? We have several large
>aeries in cottonwoods and large firs along the valley margin. These hawks
>hunt over the valley floor all year. They perch in some isolated
>cottonwoods out by the slough throughout the year. Their hunting techniques
>are a little different than I have observed other places because the
>thermals are weak over the valley so most of the time they soar only 100 to
>200 feet off the ground. But they don't appear to ever leave.
>
>Charles Vaughan
>cev at rocket.com
>Woodinville, WA

Like many other birds of this region, there are both residents and
migrants. In some species, we have 3 classes--those that remain resident
here, those that visit us in winter (breeding farther north), and those
that visit us in summer (wintering farther south). Mostly we don't know
what proportion of our populations fall in which category.

In the case of Red-tailed Hawks, I think we have many wintering birds from
farther north (the numbers really build up in the Skagit, Samish, Fraser,
Willamette, etc. valleys) and also a fair number of migrants that winter to
the south and migrate through the region. The Cape Flattery spring counts
present clear evidence for this, and I have seen many birds over my house
that seemed to be on long-distance flights heading the right direction,
both spring and fall. Even during my commute from Seattle to Tacoma, I
have seen peak numbers at times when I thought migration might be
occurring. Most of the dark-morph birds in western and perhaps eastern WA
are winter visitors, including, of course, the known "Harlan's" Red-tails
that come from the northern edge of the range.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416