News: Hawks & Kites

[Alison]

Birds of prey poisoned with Carbofuran in Eastern Bavaria: difficult search for offender

Poisoned birds of prey in East Bavaria are a great concern for animal rights activists and police. The strictly protected animals have been killed by the herbicide Carbofuran, banned since 2008. At the end of July, the carcass of a marsh harrier was found near Wallersdorf (Dingolfing-Landau district).

One can only speculate who might be interested in killing birds of prey, said Markus Schmidberger from the Bavarian Birds Association (LBV) in Cham. Last summer, around the city of Upper Palatinate at least nine birds of prey were poisoned with bait, including red kites. At the end of April, a common buzzard had been poisoned near Höllsteinsee near Viechtach (Regen district).

While eating the bait, the birds of prey die.

Even the slightest amount of Carbofuran could also be dangerous to humans, said Schmidberger. "Birds of prey are still dying while eating the bait, and maybe an animal will manage to fly 100 yards after that." But then it will be over. Where the forbidden poison comes from is unclear. It could be old stock, or orders from the Internet. "That's where you get everything."

Finding a culprit is difficult. One should not suspect groups wholesale, Schmidberger said. It could be a dog-lover who accepts the death of birds of prey. It could also be a pigeon breeder or a hunter. Because birds of prey will take also carrier pigeons, pheasants or partridges.

Whereby with the poison baits just the air fighters among the birds of prey would not be caught. For example, the peregrine falcon, which grabs a flying dove, would generally not eat any lying meat bait, Schmidberger explained. Therefore, the poison would be more likely to affect the species that were looking for carrion on the ground.

SPD calls for strengthening of the state criminal police in the field of environmental crime.

The Bavarian Hunting Association (BJV) distanced itself "very massively" from such acts. The birds of prey occurring in Germany are strictly protected. "That's what we stand for, and also when it comes to poaching," said Egbert Urbach, head of the BJV State Hunting School. "Even if it's someone from our ranks, let him lose his hunting licence."

That there are fewer and fewer pheasants, partridges and hares, is not the fault of birds of prey, said LBV man Schmidberger. Today, meadows would no longer be mowed twice a year, but more often, so meadow breeders and hares would have a lower chance of survival.

"The killing of endangered species is no triviality"

The member of parliament Florian von Brunn (SPD) demanded a strengthening of the state criminal police in the field of environmental crime in view of the killed birds of prey. That was long overdue, he said according to the announcement on
Tuesday. In Bavaria, birds of prey were poisoned for years and lynxes were simply shot down. The CSU government must make suggestions on how it wants to solve the problem. "The killing of endangered species is no triviality."

The investigation into the series of poisonings in the district of Cham last summer, according to LBV man Schmidberger, have
been discontinued. In the Wallersdorf case of the killed marsh harrier investigations are still underway. "We depend on the help of witnesses here," a police spokeswoman said.

https://www.pnp.de/nachrichten/bayern/3041179_Vergiftete-Greifvoegel-in-Ostbayern-schwierige-Taetersuche.html

[burdi]

What a happy ending for “Harvey the Hurricane Hawk”! 

Here’s a nice video from the YouTube channel of William Bruso: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ur5cLtYwsc

Stay safe, Harvey!

[burdi]

Harvey the Hawk was set free in Plano, Texas, and William Bruso was there to assist with her release! I'm posting a few of my favourite photos from Blackland Prairie Raptor Center.

William Bruso says good-bye to Harvey.

First seconds of freedom!

Her sights are on the tree line dead ahead of her.

Source: https://www.facebook.com/Blackland-Prairie-Raptor-Center-293353771975/

[burdi]

National Geographic - Latest Stories - Coverage of Harvey the Hawk

Hawk Escapes Hurricane Harvey by Car, Then Is Set Free

A young, female hawk is now free after riding out Hurricane Harvey with a Houston cab driver.
 
By Sarah Gibbens

PUBLISHED September 14, 2017

“Harvey the Hurricane Hawk” became an Internet star after the young bird of prey flew into William Bruso’s taxi cab in Houston. The Cooper’s hawk, which despite the name is female, escaped the storm with the driver.

Video of the hawk sitting in the cab’s passenger seat quickly went viral.

Now Harvey will live out the rest of her days in Oak Point Park in Plano, Texas, a nature preserve with hundreds of acres of wooded area in which hawks thrive.

It’s a happy ending for a bird that survived one of Houston’s worst natural disasters.
Riding Out the Storm

As Bruso tells it, he spotted the hawk while parked and got out to take a picture. As he was adjusting his camera, a cat ran by and spooked the hawk, causing it to fly up and dart into his car. Initially, Bruso was not excited to have the hawk in his passenger seat.

“I was afraid of getting arrested,” said Bruso.

Under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, it’s illegal to capture a Cooper’s hawk, and Bruso was fearful that authorities would think he had intentionally put the hawk in his car. On his drive home, he said he stopped several times when the rain let up to coax the bird out of the window, but it wouldn’t budge.

Eventually, as the storm hit hardest, Bruso took the bird into his Houston-area apartment, where it sat in a corner near the liquor cabinet.

Tucked away on high ground, Bruso said he and a friend rode out the storm with the door open, a hawk in the corner, and glasses of liquor to calm their anxiety.

Seeing his YouTube post, the Texas Wildlife Rehabilitation Coalition reached out to Bruso and picked up the bird two days later.

Bruso said he felt relieved once the bird was gone. Flooding was quickly becoming a problem in his neighborhood, and he didn’t know if he would be able to take care of a bird of prey if forced to evacuate.

“I needed to take care of myself, and I would’ve felt bad if something happened to her,” he said.
Rehabilitating Harvey

Harvey’s journey to Plano, about 250 miles north of Houston, was a long one. Major habitat destruction from Hurricane Harvey and Houston’s resulting floods made much of that area unsuitable for wildlife releases, according to Eric Neupert, director of the Blackland Prairie Raptor Center that released Harvey. The center has received three raptors from the Houston area and said other wildlife refuges are taking in animals such as possums and raccoons.

It has been roughly three weeks since Harvey was able to fly freely. The bird was brought into captivity shortly after hitching its ride on August 25.

“[Cooper’s hawks] are high-stress birds. It’s very tightly wound,” said Neupert. “In captivity it bashes around a lot and flies really fast. It can injure itself from being around humans.”

Neupert suspects the hawk only appeared calm with Bruso because it was extremely exhausted and stressed from the hurricane. When storms approach, hawks are able to detect changes to air pressure and have difficulty taking flight during the torrential downpour. Typically they search for natural cover, but in a dense urban city like Houston, there were few places for the hawk to shelter.

After the Texas Wildlife Rehabilitation Coalition turned the hawk over to the raptor center, which had a larger raptor facility, it was given a full medical exam and diagnosed as healthy.

Comments on Bruso’s YouTube video speculated that the hawk was injured because its wings appeared to hang low. While its wings weren’t injured, Neupert said, they appeared to droop because of stress.

“She took flight immediately” in the raptor center’s flight cage, said Neupert, and plans were quickly arranged for the hawk’s release into a natural area. Bruso made the three-hour drive to Plano to watch Harvey fly into the park. For him, it’s closure on one of the most bizarre and stressful events of his life.

“During the storm, I was in survival mode,” said Bruso, “but in hindsight, it’s magical.”

For the man who became the unwitting caretaker of Houston’s famous hurricane hawk, the hawk’s rescue represents a second chance that some Houstonians didn’t get.

“People lost their lives during Harvey,” he said. “This hawk survived. She can go do hawk stuff now, and I’m glad for that.”

Source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/09/hurricane-harvey-hawk-rescue-video-spd/

[burdi]

Brief update on Harvey the Hawk from Blackland Prairie Raptor Center

Harvey the Hurricane Hawk Lands in Lucas

http://www.bpraptorcenter.org/

[burdi]

TWRC published another uplifting video update on Harvey the Hurricane Hawk!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6Ti6_mFeq4

Harvey has been transferred to Blackland Prairie Raptor Center

[burdi]

Harvey the Hurricane Hawk is a female, and she's doing great!

Update from TWRC

Published on Sep 4, 2017
Harvey the Hurricane Hawk is doing great! As promised, here is the video showing Harvey in the outside mew. Harvey will go to a large outdoor flight cage in a few days! Here are some interesting facts about Harvey: Harvey is actually a girl! Female Cooper’s Hawks weigh more than males and she is heavier than a typical male would be. Coopers Hawks’ favorite food are small to mid-sized birds, which they catch in flight. Therefore, Harvey will need to be able to fly perfectly before release so that she can hunt well in the wild. Harvey is a juvenile, so this is her first year of life. Next year she may find a mate and produce offspring, but most Cooper’s Hawks do not breed until they are 2 years old.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aF_-5w3N2Wc

[burdi]

The TWRC Wildlife Center provided a short video showing the progress of Harvey the Hurricane Hawk, including the following update.

Published on Sep 4, 2017
Harvey has finished cage rest and is now in an outside mew (outside enclosure) for a few days before going into a large flight cage! Here is some video of Harvey in the Kennel yesterday full of energy and looking more like a healthy Cooper’s Hawk. We will do another post with a video clip of Harvey in the outside cage as well as some interesting Harvey facts.

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCCbvBw5TM0

[burdi]

News from Texas continues to be heartbreaking, but the story of Harvey the hawk may turn out well, I hope.

I’m including a couple of news articles and a video from TWRC Wildlife Center.

http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2017/08/31/547332452/from-hawk-to-horse-animal-rescues-during-hurricane-harvey

http://www.audubon.org/news/the-story-harvey-coopers-hawk-rescued-during-hurricane

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVe5ynGQRMk

[burdi]

I found further info on the hawk in Houston, Texas. But sadly, many news sources say that rainfall and flooding in Texas is unprecedented. Damage reports continue, and Houston is under a curfew.

The person who rescued the hawk has been receiving all sorts of criticism, but I’m just thankful he remained calm and wanted to help; otherwise, “Harvey the Hurricane Hawk” might not have survived! TWRC Wildlife Center managed to provided an update, although their facility is currently closed.

News article and update

http://womc.cbslocal.com/2017/08/29/harvey-the-hurricane-hawk/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1P7qp_Zi_NA

[burdi]

I noticed a news story about a hawk in Houston, Texas:

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/entry/harvey-the-hurricane-hawk_us_59a2cd21e4b06d67e33833a9

Thankfully, the taxi driver remained calm, and he handled the bird very well! Later, he turned the bird over to a wildlife rescue centre:

http://www.twrcwildlifecenter.org/

Here’s some info regarding the chilling effects of Hurricane Harvey in Texas:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-27/crews-rescue-hundreds-from-homes-cars-as-harvey-hits-houston/8847014

https://www.yahoo.com/news/hurricane-harvey-threatens-thousands-pets-livestock-000642646--finance.html

[Alison]

TPC, do you know what kind of bird this is? I think it may be a leucistic hawk. This bird is from a Dutch website with multiple cams where I go to check on the Axel peregrine nest.

Because we can't see the bird's tail or in profile and it is hard to accurately gauge size, I think my first guess would be a leucistic common buzzard (Buteo buteo) because what first came to mind was that it reminded me of a red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) or one of the other broad-winged, stocky, medium-sized hawks.  Best opinion I can provide I'm afraid - hope it helps.  If anyone on the Dutch site comes up with possibilities, please do post it/them here as well, would be interesting to hear their thoughts.

Thanks for the reply, TPC! I think you are right about this bird being a common buzzard.

I have not see her again on cam, but perhaps this recent video of the bird will help. She (?) is referred to as a "blonde buzzard".

https://youtu.be/hk3icXlsRDY

[The Peregrine Chick]

TPC, do you know what kind of bird this is? I think it may be a leucistic hawk. This bird is from a Dutch website with multiple cams where I go to check on the Axel peregrine nest.

Because we can't see the bird's tail or in profile and it is hard to accurately gauge size, I think my first guess would be a leucistic common buzzard (Buteo buteo) because what first came to mind was that it reminded me of a red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis) or one of the other broad-winged, stocky, medium-sized hawks.  Best opinion I can provide I'm afraid - hope it helps.  If anyone on the Dutch site comes up with possibilities, please do post it/them here as well, would be interesting to hear their thoughts.

[Alison]

TPC, do you know what kind of bird this is? I think it may be a leucistic hawk. This bird is from a Dutch website with multiple cams where I go to check on the Axel peregrine nest.

 

http://www.natuurkanaal.nl/

This particular cam is Boscam 4.

[burdi]

Lincoln, Nebraska

July 26, 2016



A hawk took a big interest in a TV news weather-cam on Monday.

KOLN in Lincoln, Nebraska said the hawk likes to hang out in front of the camera mounted on their tower, so they check in on it from time to time.

But they've never seen it stare them down like this.

They speculated it had a lot to say about the weather that day.

To see the video:

http://www.kcrg.com/content/news/Hawk-checks-out-TV-stations-weather-camera-388289662.html

Thank you for sharing this story, Alison. I have to wonder exactly what this hawk was seeing, thinking and saying while visiting the camera … the look on his or her face was priceless!