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MARSH HAWK

Other common names: Marsh Harrier; Harrier; Mouse Hawk.

This much photographed bird (at the nesting site) visits the park regularly in autumn. They swell the hawk army that annually visits and hunts on the slopes of the Sourdough Range - their prey, the ground squirrels. Taylor and Shaw also reported a bird at St. Andrew's Park in 1919.

In Washington they are really a bird of the east side where they breed. The nesting site is usually in long grass bordering some swamp. It is the only hawk that always chooses a ground site. Three to six bluish-white eggs, sometimes with a faint brown mark, are laid on a light platform of sticks and grass.

Few hawks exceed in beauty the male bird with his blue head and back, and white patch at the base of tail. The females and immatures lack the bright colors, being of a plainish-brown color. They are long, thin-bodied birds with long wings and identified by the continuously low flights over field, swamp or meadow. In additions they have the facial, owl-like disk around each eye to distinguish them from other hawks .

In the park, they may be seen in September, between Sunrise Point and the Burrough's Mountain, keeping, as a rule, to the open country along the ridge. A pair on Dege Peak, the Sunday morning of September 19, 1937, spent some time in chasing a western red-tail. It was a lazy almost friendly-like chase; first one and then the other would swoop down on the larger bird, always being careful not to be too near at the finish. The red-tail seemed to enjoy the sport as much as the others.

On the west side of the Cascades we have only fall records of this bird and, curiously enough, all have been either females or immature birds. No bright-colored males have as yet been recorded.

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PRAIRIE FALCON

Museum Specimen - Yakima Park (6400).

This pale, prairie form of the Peregrine falcon was first recorded at Yakima Park in 1937. During the week from September 10 to 16 they were fairly common on the Sourdough Range, but were not seen after that date.

The prairie falcon's summer range is the hot, dry sage-brush country east of the Cascades. Here, where the buttes stick out in rocky silence, they raise their broods and return to the same site each year. With them at nursery time are the horned owl, raven, red-tail and rattle-snake, but the falcon is lord and master and all others respect his presence. Four to six rusty-colored eggs are laid, very handsome, some being close to crushed strawberry in tint. The nesting site is a cleft in the cliff. Sometimes old nests of the raven or red-tail are used.

It seems a pity that the North American Indian did not know his falconry. What a sight it would have been to see some Sioux warrior on bare-backed pony, at the top of a rocky butte, with falcon on wrist ready to launch on some disturbed sharp-tailed grouse or passing sickle-billed curlew. And what a game it would have been for the Indian!

Prairie falcons nay be recognized by their direct flight, like other falcons. They seem, when leaving their perch, to have made up their minds just where they are going. With quick wing-beats and then perhaps a sail their course is usually taken in a direct line. Of course, while hunting their swoop is like that of the duck hawk - the swiftest thing in the air.

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DUCK HAWK

Other common names: Peregrine falcon; Great-footed Hawk.

Peer of the feathered kingdom, the duck-hawk of America or peregrine falcon of the Old World, outranks all others in nobleness, bravery, and flight. This bird has been known from the time of the early Egyptians, whose symbolic paintings portrayed the true likeness of this bird as one of their gods of worship, on down through early days of English history when falconry was the sport of kings. And today, where falconry still exists, the duck hawk is ever the favorite.

This bird is seen occasionally in the park. Two records (Kitchin) have been made - one over the Colonnades, the other at Reflection Lake.

I was standing near the shore of Reflection Lake when a duck hawk came tearing over the high bank from Lake Louise. She (I think it was a female by its size) lit on a dead snag quite near me. Identification was easy and positive as her blue back and distinct undermarkings shone in the morning sun. After a few minutes rest she evidently made up her mind to go down Stevens' Canyon and with speed few birds could equal disappeared around the face of Faraway Rock.

Duck hawks nest in a cleft on a high, perpendicular rock-side, usually with water below. They lay three or four eggs of a rich chocolate color - the pride of every oologist. Not only are they rare in collections, but nearly every set means a trip over a rocky wall via a rope with perhaps 200 feet to dangle.

The speed and grace characteristic of the flight of these birds is remarkable. A bird may be seen hovering high over some mud flat with wings and tail spread. The next second it may fall like a bomb to within a few feet of the ground when it will skim out along the water's edge, and all birds, from the least sandpiper to the great blue heron, arise and part its line of progress. It may chase some shore-bird, driving beneath it and keeping there until they ascend to a great height, where it will as likely as not turn and leave the terrified and bewildered bird.

Another remarkable feat is their vertical flight, performed by no other bird. The falcon will drop vertically on some shorebird at the water's edge. When a few feet from the ground the descent is checked, the bird turns and ascends some 200 feet in an absolutely vertical upward move, again to descend over the frightened victim that receives him with a splash of water. This may be repeated a dozen times before the hawk tires and moves off, leaving, we believe, a very befuddled sandpiper.

Sportsmen should take a lesson from this noble bird - that all the chase is not in the kill. Instead of a predatory foe it should be voted a life membership in all Associations!

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BLACK PIGEON HAWK

Other common names: Black Merlin; Snipe Hawk.

Museum Specimen - Sunset Park. (5000).

It is often said that if the ornithologist has a weakness for any one group of birds, that group would be the shorebirds. This feeling has certainly existed among western Washington naturalists, and I am no exception. While spending much of our time on the shorebird flats, naturally we have become acquainted with a certain little "snipe hawk" - the black pigeon hawk or black merlin.

When the sandpipers and plover migrate south along our coast, the black pigeon hawk appears with them. They were formerly very common, but now their numbers are greatly reduced. Though alike in size, the darker plumage is distinctive to the ornithologist who can usually identify it from the lighter and commoner western variety.

Even after years of study there is still much to learn about this little black falcon. Though common with us in the fall, they seem gradually to disappear in winter, and in spring we have a few, if any, records. We know little or nothing about their breeding, and I doubt if an authentic set of eggs has ever been taken. The late Mr. J. H. Bowles of Tacoma found a pair with young years ago in the Puyallup Valley. The nest site was in an old flicker hole in a tall cottonwood, and both birds were present. The eggs are undoubtedly like those of the western pigeon hawk only darker, perhaps a chocolate shade.

The flight of the black pigeon hawk, like that of all falcons, is powerful and direct; it is generally observed flying low over the grassy flats or up some slough. I have noticed they always alight on a bare dead branch in a tree, a fence post or a stranded snag. Even in the woods they choose the top of a dead tree. The western pigeon hawk will often alight in the thick branches of a coniferous tree but I have never seen the black pigeon hawk do so.

Black merlins are sooty black above and the black stripes down the whitish breast are sharp and more distinct than the brown stripes of the western pigeon hawk. Old males take on a beautiful dark bluish-slate colored back, but this plumage is very rare. In fact, I know of only three birds so characterized - one taken in British Columbia, one at Bellingham, Washington, and another in Tacoma, Washington. In twenty-five years of active field work and collecting I have never seen a bird in this plumage.

We have one record for the park - a bird taken at Sunset Park. They will never be common in migration as they prefer the ocean flats, but some time we may create history by finding a pair nesting within our boundaries. Hasten the day!

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WESTERN PIGEON HAWK

Other common names: Merlin; Snipe Hawk.

Museum Specimen - Yakima Park (6400).

There is somewhat of a mystery about the migration of this little falcon in Washington. In the fall of the year when the shore-birds are traveling south, they may be quite common along the sea coast and mud flats. A few remain all winter. In the spring, however, they are seldom seen - at least there is no direct migration northward, and we have no breeding records within the State.

Two birds have been recorded in the park - on the Sourdough Ridge on September 23, 1937 (Kitchin), one being collected.

Pigeon hawks can be identified by their direct flight. They may be hard to separate from the sharp-shin, but the narrow wings and shorter tail should help. Again, the pigeon hawk is more a bird of the open flats and meadows while the sharp-shin will stay closer to the woods. This falcon, like others of its kind, can remain stationary in flight - a stunt also duplicated by the kingfisher. This is done when prey is sighted on the ground in grass-covered fields.

As the adult birds grow older they take on a pale-blue back, but perhaps not one in fifteen is seen in this plumage. Most of them are brown above with light underparts streaked with dark-brown markings.

This little "snipe hawk" is a true falcon and loves the chase. There is nothing it seems to like better than to dash into a flock of red-backed sandpipers, scattering and frightening them but not often making a kill. It does take a bird when hungry - just picks it up without a chase. They are particularly fond of grasshoppers and dragon-flies as their "stomach contents" show.

Pigeon hawks lay the regular falcon-like eggs - four or five in number with the usual rusty-red tint. They may nest in a cliff or a hole in a tree, but they are hard to find and are in few collections.

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EASTERN SPARROW HAWK

Other common names: Mouse Hawk; Killy-killy Hawk.

Museum Specimen - Paradise (5400).

This small falcon is commonly seen in the park on all sides during the summer and fall seasons. They are very common on the Sourdough Range in September. Another of their places is Grand Park in late summer where a plenteous repast of grasshoppers is always at hand. For several years a pair has nested along the road between Canyon Rim and Frog Heaven. The Nickel Creek burn is also attractive, being an open country with plenty of dead snags - their favorite perch.

Bright colors are worn by both adult birds, and they are one of the few birds of prey showing difference in plumage between sexes. The male shows rusty above barred with black lines, wings bluish, underparts whitish spotted with round, black dots. The female is heavier barred on back, wings less bluish, and underparts streaked with brownish lines. Her tail is heavily barred while the male's tail has only one terminal bar.

Sparrow hawks nest sparingly in western Washington but commonly on the east side. A hole in a tree trunk is the usual nesting site, but clefts in cliffs or an old magpie nest may be used where trees are not available. No nesting material is used - only what the previous owner has left. Four or five light rusty colored eggs are laid.

Their diet consists principally of small rodents, grasshoppers and other insects. Local ornithologists have no records of this hawk catching or eating a bird.

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Descriptions continued...