Raptors are harvesting songbirds at Deer Parks
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As the atmospheric river brings storms into southeastern Idaho into the New Year’s Day dumping several inches of snow, I waited until mid-morning before heading out in the heavy falling snow. I decided to head to Deer Parks Wildlife Management Area; surely, the huge flock of red-winged blackbirds along with other small songbirds would be busy trying to find food.
I was not disappointed – the raptors were also hungry, harassing the seed-eating songbirds.
Even before I got to the agricultural fields of Deer Parks, I saw evidence of bird-battles over captured songbirds. On an irrigation pivot, an immature bald eagle was tearing apart an unrecognizable songbird while a raven was giving chase to an American kestrel who had captured a small bird. Being more like thieves than killers, bald eagles and ravens use the talents of smaller, quicker raptors to do the hard work of catching the prey so they can steal the dead bird from them.
As I pulled on to the field containing standing dried sunflowers along with other seed-producing plants, a huge flock of songbirds flew up. Three northern harriers were flushing the feeding songbirds that contained mostly red-winged blackbirds, American goldfinch, pine siskins and house finches. As the seed-eaters were flying in circles, it appeared the harriers were “flock-shooting” them by flying swiftly through the black mass of flying songbirds. I finally saw a harrier hit a blackbird, do a somersault and disappear into the vegetation after the crippled bird.
I also noticed a sharp-shinned hawk perched on a sunflower plant and as a goldfinch flew by, the hawk quickly captured the luckless bird. It was not long before a northern shrike captured a siskin and after eating it, perched near my truck. The northern shrikes have replaced their cousin, the loggerhead shrike for the wintertime. Loggerheads nest in the area during the summer, but the northern shrikes spend the winter here. Shrikes are songbirds that feed on other songbirds. Often, they will kill more than they can eat and will impale dead birds on barbed wire or a thorn of a tree. The one I saw was satisfied by only killing what it needed to eat.
I was not the only observer to watch this cat-and-mouse as a small bull moose wandered out of the cattails and bedded down in the middle of the show. But of course, it had to enjoy a snack by munching on some of the seed-laden sunflower heads. After some friends of mine stopped by for a visit and take pictures of the moose, it wandered back to the safety of the cattails.
As the afternoon progressed red-tailed hawks, merlins and a prairie falcon all showed up to feast on the abundant songbirds. With the snowfall becoming lighter, I was able to see better, but it was time to head home when I saw medium-sized raptor fly out of the sunflowers and land on a power pole. At first, I thought it was another sharp-shinned hawk, but then I saw the rounded tail feathers instead of the square ones – a coopers hawk had joined the harvest. The songbirds were constantly being flushed as the raptors harvested their mid-afternoon snacks.
With six inches of snow on the ground, rodents for the raptors to feed on now had a covering to save them while the songbirds were in a lot more danger. That probably means that the rodents are now enjoying your lawns and in the spring your lawns will be manicured by these uneducated little guys. Lets hope the Great gray owls that can harvest the voles through the snow will soon be down from the mountains to control those little destructive creatures.
By the way, the great-horned owls have already started flirting with each other and they should soon be disturbing your sleep if they choose your backyard to raise their young. Also, the Trumpeter swans are now working the corn fields at Deer Parks WMA, but on New Year’s Day it was too snowy for me to see most of them as they flew in.
