Subject: [Tweeters] Aerobatic Harrier Behavior...Why?
Date: Apr 20 12:07:04 2007
From: Bob Stallcop - bstallcop at seanet.com


Tweets;

I stopped at the Kent Ponds yesterday afternoon on my way home from the
weekly Nisqually bird walk, and observed what I considered some pretty
spectacular behavior by a female Northern Harrier. As I was watching and
describing to a photographer on the north tower the difference in "typical"
flight patterns between Red-tailed Hawk and N. Harrier, the Harrier
proceeded to belie my description of the normal low swooping flight pattern
and began to do the typical Red-tail spiral soar on a thermal. She climbed
to about 1000 feet, and then did a perfect roll out into a spectacular dive
down to about 500 feet, then pulled out of the dive and did a complete back
loop. The bird continued her aerobatic display for about 10 more minutes,
soaring to altitude, diving, and pulling a back loop, before finally flying
off to the northwest at about 500 feet.

Has anyone else seen this kind of behavior from a Harrier? When the display
started, there was another female and a male in the area. Is it some kind of
mating display, or just the kind of exhuberant behavior that some animals
engage in "just because they can"?

Bob Stallcop
Renton (Maple Valley Heights), Washington
bstallcop at seanet.com
(425)922-2300