Land Between Two Rivers; 311; The Nest

Funding for the following program is provided by the Kenny Lindstrom Foundation a charitable trust Mason City Iowa and by friends of Iowa Public Television. No. It starts with the discovery of a nest. Now the burger has a destination. A place to spend long hours with field glasses and notepad. The thrill of observing behavior that you have only read about takes over the ecstasy of moving beyond description to interpretation. Back in. The birds

now familiar with your visits acceptor vigil. You are allowed to squeeze off a few frames which capture the image of your prey more completely than any hunters ever imagined in their wildest fantasies. This is the wonder of the nest. It is not just the propagation of the species which makes this location important in the nasty birds learn and we are allowed to observe behavior which will guide them throughout their lives. Nests are well worth spending the time to discover. Once on Vale they can provide hours of stimulating observation. And a lifetime of insight into the wonder that surrounds all birds who are allowed to be themselves. Well it's an easy place to observe as of course you can't talk about the life history of the bird without talking about where it nests. Yeah you know that's where

I think that's where it happens. That's where it make sure that it. That it kind of continues on. You learn so much about their behavior by being able to do that. I just wish I had found all 12 hours every day of the week that I could chew and it doesn't work out that way let me tell you for there were a number of years that I did as high as 300 missed studies a summer and that was when I really learned about birds doing those nasties. I was doing her master's and I was doing the open nest a little songbirds everything. The hard thing is finding the nests ranging. I had it lucky I had that 60 acre old pasture and it was the best nesting area I have ever seen. There were a few years that I had 35 different species nesting them down on a 60 acre field.

How wonderful for the nesting is always the focal point you know it's the. It's the propagation of the species as it's kind of what defines a species or at least far as murderers are often concerned is where and how a bird nest because all successful species have their own specific way nested as we're seeing with a vulture. They use dead trees or caves. As we're seeing with each different species that we've examined the Red Tails Cooper's hawks red shoulders. They each have a distinct niche that there is really they're owed. After a winter in which sometimes burgers don't do quite so much birding although a lot of burgers do do a lot of winter birding. They're anxious to get out and do

some birding So this spring it's natural to get out hey let's go find some this you know. The only noise they made is that they will hissed at us if they're a little bit frightened. Home your 3 year read look at the beak. Look at look at the beak on it's a big strong beak with a little bit of a hook on it but not as hooked as that of the eagle or the Hawks. There they're going to use that to tear me down by a carcass of rotten meat it would be like that because of like a cork I suppose. Why a knife would be more like a knife is to us and they would probably use their feet but then I could eat out a little bit unwieldy. That means they don't have talons on them as the owls and the Hawks do that but there was a pretty sharp bill last year that had done him wrong yeah right. Would you have dreamed that the bird is that so big and black and has a six foot wings

where all black would you ever think they'd have white babies. You wouldn't would you. And those babies keep that white girl on there for a long time even after they're getting the black wing feathers and the black tail feathers you see a little bit of black feathers coming in on the back and the head stay stuck there yeah do you know that I had pulled it out. Three or four years right. Yes the ski and of course the buzzard has a skin on the face instead of feathers because she eats it gets into rotten food you see and it's easier to keep the bare skin clean and stroll for the first year that face will be a bare black color and then the second year it will turn the bright red color. This is the only vulture that visits this and this part of the country in the southwest. There's a veteran it's called the black vulture and it's got a heavier body. I don't think the wingspan there's an boy I know it's not nearly as big and there are some there's

some quite that show not mud in the primaries. This bird is very balanced. And the reason it's buoyant is because we don't have the thermals in this part of the country like they do in the Southwest where there's all that sun coming down on the earth and and then the hot air rising causing these thermals. So those birds don't have to work as hard as as these birds to to find that. That time those nice areas to soar. They still are high too. Born I was in 5000 feet and I while my lower these birds ashore for miles without ever moving away without expending any energy. Turkey vultures spend much of the day soaring in their search for carrion. As

some set approaches. These Raptors return to communal roots of up to several hundred birds. Formed on buildings radio towers and enlarged tree such as those found here at Red Rock. My guess would be that these are probably the oldest roofs in the state. And the earliest annals of history and that was around 1840 six. It was mentioned that they saw the buzzards. Psystar and saw the buzzards in the Red Rock area but they could not locate the roofs although they did. Down the block at that time they have been forced to roost on the in the tall trees on the bluff. They prefer the river bottom trees but when the late field if they had to cut down all the trees. Do you call these does or did I call them vultures. They were always called the buzzards by the. Citizens the early settlers and all refer to them as writers. That

there they're not ready to answer telling Turkey their turkey vultures. They're the sanitariums of the bird world I say I have. I read somewhere it also where they were trapped and taken to New Orleans during wholes a plague that was going on there and to eat up the dead rats that were around. So it is very early times their value is recognized but I think if they had I don't think they've had good press lately. People always snicker or always go oh Eric when they see a vulture there just to name an animal they are so smart. Cultures have been the subject of legends and myths from ancient times to the present. But they are not the only Raptor which has captivated someone's imagination.

Myself I love hawks because they're hawks they're wild they're free they're strong they can soar they can do they're they're the epitome of freedom I guess. But you can also think of it is what happens to them happens to us. They feed at the top of the food chain we feed at the top of the food chain the certain things start to happen to them as Dean said biochemically. They're an indicator. The biggest difference in the three species is the red shouldered the Cooper's Hawk and the red tailed hawk is the positioning of their nest simply by the position of the nest you can almost tell which species it is. The Cooper's Hawk will be of course as we've talked about in Upland woods and will be pretty much in the center of the tree and usually not too high. Same place between are usually around 35 feet. The Register as well will usually build in a in a crotch or the main trunk of a tree the size of the nest of both a red shoulder and a

Cooper's hawk as it is pretty much what you call a medium size Hawk nest stick nest nicely lined up in the center of the tree. They're really quite similar but there again in the habitat you find the ultimate distinction in that Coopers is in the upland and the red shoulder is in the floodplain forest. Red Tail nests are quite quite a bit different in that they build in march toward the edge of the trees. They usually pick bigger trees they pick a tree that's on the edge of the wood lot usually more open. It's and they build a nest that's quite a bit larger than both the red shoulder and the cooper side. It's about twice the size or Reginald or less and about twice the size of their Coopers hog. They're right or they're deep or they're out toward the edge of the tree and they also align them with almost every every red telltale this will be lined with corn stocks.

I suppose I should see the red tail is really my favorite and that I always enjoy spring trying to find a few nests to do a lot of hollering for food. Yes they do. Do you suppose they'd eat for it three or four ounces a day. Oh more than that. The babies to be ounces and as you say should I have found with both hawks and owls that when they are growing the big wing feathers that is when the they have a voracious appetite. As soon as those big wing feathers have been grown and then most of the feathers are empty as they end their appetite slack comes off. Thank you. The red tail then nests more on the edge doesn't it it's more in the edge of the woods or almost always stays like the edge or right out in the open as this red tail and I remember there in the

open that was about the only big tree out in the center of a big pasture. One time that was out toward the. Toward the Rock Island railroad track. But there was plenty of timber nearby but they will hop over open fields and they do take a lot of snakes. Just a great number of snakes. Jury member that done that I think maybe it was one it will be a long time ago it would have been eight years ago or so that you said must be a young mother because she nested in this tree right out in the blazing trees a dead tree. You're not in that life that I would try to safety. A police version and she did not succeed in raising any babies that year by the time the leaves are all out the nest disappears it's really hard for us to keep track of the progress of those babies in the fledging.

Because of delays the Red Tails are such good parents Tuesdays and they're great all morning and the day that John's conference and then the IPT boys with their baby who you probably remember were circling over all the time screaming. Yeah she was standing high up in the air. If people might have trouble identifying dimeter or Red Tails because they don't really have the red tail yet they have an adult plumage in the back is similar on their wings but they don't get the red tail until their second year. By the end of this year she'll be getting nice and red. But after she molds this summer but now in their first year they just have kind of a banded tail and you can see a hint of red there. This reddish brown is starting to come up. But this bird is a typical plumage and part of the problem for identification of Red Tails is the fact

that there are so many plumage just for eye where this is what you'd call a typical Eastern Eastern bird with a right breast the head that's brown with some some light coloring and then a breast band. Which is kind of Buffy Brown. Fairly dark but those very same birds are have be fairly dead I can hear some birds will have a brass band holy day they'll be almost all white. It's difficult to identify are not the red tailed hawk is one of the most abundant Raptors nesting in Iowa today. Diet plays a major role in the success of the red tail will take whatever prey is common birds snakes rabbits even thousands during winter adapting to our ever changing landscape is another major factor. Red Tails prefer habitat with plenty of air which the interest personal of fields

forests rivers and prairie that now exist in Iowa is tailor made for Red Tails. Such. Red shouldered hawks on the other hand were probably somewhat reduced in numbers by pesticides. But loss of habitat is the cause of their long term decline. Overload. Even he says. Inhabitants of floodplains. Red shouldered Hawks sit quietly on and in conspicuous scourged searching for prey.

Mammals birds frogs and toads snakes and lizards and occasionally crustaceans fish and insects. Such prey is relatively common throughout the state. But the floodplains vital to their nesting cycle are an ever diminishing commodity. The rich soil is too valuable to stand idle in private hands as a result. Sightings of red shouldered hawk nests have decreased precipitously. The few nests still existing in the state are by and large found on flood plains abutting the Mississippi. When the slime of the old bottom part of this huge amount. And. I think the ratio of nests in. State or federal lands is usually about 90 percent and we just don't find them on private land anymore because there isn't much habitat like this that's left in private hands anymore. And so. Of the active ness that we know of almost all of them are on state or federal land

and receive some kind of protection Francis has received no pressure no logging. It's just a left alone area and so that that's really typical of a red children and some of the richest farmland in the state is in is on the flood plains of these of these streams and so most many of them have been cleared and and farmed and that's one of the been the one of the big. Detriments to the nesting of the bird in the state see decline very rapidly in the mid 60s mid 50s to the mid 60s and continuing on to today. They do need very specific written requirements medium aged soft maples in the on a floodplain and a nearby marsh for hunting because they do quite a bit of their hunting for feeding purposes on nearby marshes and we have those strong out here along the Mississippi River and maybe that's it. Maybe we

just don't have those. Maybe we drained just enough of those in central Iowa farm just enough of the floodplain habitat so just the total environment is wrong for something we may never figure out but we're pleased that they still do nest here at least I live in the flood when this is a pure river. These birds are probably only about a hole between three and four weeks old I suspect and they leave the nest at maybe closer to oh six or seven weeks so he's got he's got quite a while in the nest yet. And so when they leave the nest they're going to be the same size as the as the adult and then they'll be cared for by the adults for some time after they leave the nest. And then bingo they'll be on their own. They're still vulnerable still helpless at this stage. It's hard to realize that in the two months three months they.

Get out and they're only killing every day to feed themselves. You see there their feathers are just now bursting through the shafts this little shaft here for instance the feather is only out for an inch or so and and they're putting the majority of their energy into the production of new feathers know their weight isn't increasing very much but their production new feathers is consuming most of their energy. I think beautiful. This is one of our rarest birds in Iowa. This is the. Bird that was quite common in the war when I was growing up I remember their call very frequently in the woodlands where I grew up and then in the 50s in the 60s a precipitous Lady find until we thought they were gone from the from the state. And then we found a half dozen or so nests in the late 70s and now we know

of maybe 10 or 12 nests in the state but for some reason this bird became one of us. They become quite vocal at certain times of the nesting cycle late the nesting cycle like this especially when they're hungry. Is another wonderful call it sort of typifies what's still in the tree and. The red shouldered hawk often emits its distinctive call.

It can be heard along the small rivers flowing through flood land. Logged or cultivated floodplains allowed to return to their native conditions might take years to attract red shouldered hawk nests. On the other hand young second growth over hickory forest often used by county conservation departments for parks are an attractive nesting site for the Cooper's hawk. Wants scornfully referred to as the chicken hawk. In the scrubby undergrowth of such forests many songbirds and asked a primary source of food for the Coopers. XTS. Although they are usually secretive some Cooper's hawks will vigorously and vociferously defend their nests. Both male and female take care of their young but the female is most often observed at the nest. Females are 40 percent larger than their male counterparts. Thus the female is most suited to warding off

predators of the next and the male is most adapted to hunting in the enclosed havens chosen by their prey. The Cooper stock is really it's an advantageous bird throughout the United States where it's only found its nest from from southern Canada down to northern Mexico. So it's found throughout the county continental United States and in each section of the country it's found in different habitats in the southwest they find it on the river bottoms nesting in cottonwoods in the northwest they find it in the coniferous forests out in the end. In Missouri as you mentioned they found them in some of the pine pine forests there and in Iowa we find them mainly in the Old Hickory type forest. I think we do have races of birds. You know the the race that we have here in the Midwest and Iowa is different ecologically and. Evolutionarily from those which nest in the mountains and so they select different habitats.

We do have a lot of Cooper's hawks in migration. And we have upped it in the last 20 years we probably have knowledge of probably fewer than 20 nests up till this the last couple of years and now we're finally catching on how to look for them. We found nests in southeast Iowa in southern Iowa here in central Iowa. We didn't really think that was true up until recently. I know that there's more out there just looking at there see how secretive they noticed in April when they come to their nesting territories. They make a lot of racket they cackle around a lot and they defend a territory. And then after they lay the eggs in May all of May they're pretty much quiet. And in June when the young are out they may cackle some more. But other than that other than this small time a couple weeks in April a couple weeks in June they're very

quiet. And and as as it was noted before they don't soar a lot in the sky so they're not very conspicuous they're they're just a bird that unless you're looking for him you're not probably going to find them. One Cobras hawks may be on the upsurge in Iowa Red shouldered hawks are threatened. But stable. Only the red tailed hawk prospers. How have the nesting habits of each Hawk predicted this pattern. In their time they nest first the Red Tail nests the lazy rakes probably mid-March and they have left the nest late May usually red shoulders are next. They usually leave the nest by mid June and then the super saw his latest leaving the nest by mid-July. That doesn't seem like a very important point. The fact that the red tail nest earlier.

The red shoulder nest a little later Cooper's hawk nest later yet it is because when the red tail is feeding its young and needs and needs a maximum amount of food that's been the maximum amount of praise available. Red shoulders her a little later because when they're selecting their nest site and start and to incubate and feed young that's when the marshes should be. At their peak and then the Coopers or later yap and they sort of correspond with the big migration of birds so they eat in their own way exploit the prey base that they have evolved. With. The Red Tail non-Malays to it for clutch. The original reason. Four five seven maybe. Cooper saw. Three to six usually just by. The number of legs probably is determined by the amount of tray which is available immediately. Prior to the.

Big lead. But there's a lot of habitat available for the red tail hawks so they've they had their clutches can be smaller because there's a lot more of. We have restricted habitats especially for the racial divide. Don't I bring many of the right. Greg and add. In so it has to do quite well. In the same way with the cougars. We have less of this. Good have attended the state than we have for the rest of the species. So. I presume that's. Kind of important in the survival of the species. Selection of a definite site is conditioned by factors of environment. And later determine the state of the young. The birds participate in those conditions. Birders debate their ultimate impact. But no bird will deny that the nest. Builder of simple materials close to hand. Is an object which is greater than the sum of its parts. The nest is the place of birth. The place of continuity. The

link. Which connects a bird to its community. The nest is the place of instruction. Home turf. Home stomping ground. The tap root of a bird's very existence. Approach with respect. To. Gather information would bring you a lifetime of continuing joy and inspiration. Communing with your neighbors. At the electric intersection. And Mass. Funding for the preceding program was provided by the Friends of I Will public television and

by the Kenney Lundstrom Foundation a charitable trust Mason City Iowa.