We turned onto Brushy Fork Road in search of Red-tailed Hawks (Red-tails). The rolling hills of southwest Illinois are ideal habitat for them. The pastures and fingers of trees that follow watercourses and ridges provide a home for small rodents and places for hawks to perch and watch. There were four of us in the Subaru scanning a mottled gray sky and the trees for hawks. We turned a corner and I heard “Abietacola on the right. Slow down, slow down.” Trying to catch a hawk is intense and a lot of things have to go right. The bird needs to be looking in the right direction and have a clear line of sight to the trap. You cannot be too close to a house or the bird. The road needs to have little traffic and you have to drive at the proper speed. Not too fast and not too slow. You cannot stop. We mostly fail. Our success rate is around 15%. This particular bird happens to cooperate. We slow to a crawl and the lead researcher slowly opens the door and sets a wire cage with a mouse inside in the grass by the side of the road. We keep moving and the hawk stays in place in an oak tree about 50 yards away. He is looking in the direction of the trap. We drive down the road about 500 yards turn around and watch.
After about 5 minutes the hawk flies down toward the trap. He briefly hovers and lands on the trap and is motionless. His feet are now immersed in tiny monofilament loops. He flaps his wings and falls to the ground. He is caught! We fly into action and arrive at the trap within seconds. The intensity builds. People are moving quickly to gather equipment and get to the hawk. I step out of the car and see the hawk lying on the ground. A blanket is thrown over the hawk and we quickly remove the loops from his feet. This is where the experience takes on a surreal quality. The hawk is being held upright by the legs and I am standing three feet away. My domesticated human world is face to face with wildness. This being radiates life, he shines in the dappled light and he seems to be vibrating like a bee. He is stunning. I cannot take my eyes off of him. He has spread his wings, opened his mouth, stuck out his bright pink tongue with a hole in it, and he is staring at us with wild eyes. He is not injured, but he is not happy.
The eyes draw you in. I am watching his pupils dilate and expand in response to shifting light levels. He is looking right into my eyes. I feel like I am being seen. His eyes are a mix of brown, white, and black. They are brilliant and appear to be lit from within. He fixes his intense stare on whoever is closest to him, but he appears to be calm. He does not struggle or vocalize the entire time. A leather hood is quickly placed over his head to limit stress.
With the hood on it is easier to appreciate the rich dark brown color in his feathers, bright yellow scaly feet tipped with menacing black talons, and his bright white chest. Seen up close the hawk is thrown into sharp relief. I normally see them perched on trees and posts off in the distance. Now, presented with one at arm's length, the abstract hawk becomes an individual with a personality. I have so many questions. Where did he come from? Does he have a mate and offspring? Where is he going? What is his life like?
I can picture him delicately feeding tiny white fluffy chicks. Allopreening his mate and careening through the sky in an aerial duet as part of annual pair bonding. He has complex relationships and is smarter than we will ever know. However, we know a little more about Red-tails every year. Modern technology and curious researchers are hard at work probing the mystery that is a Red-tail. That is what I am witnessing now. Rulers and calipers are used to measure feather, beak, and leg length. We weigh him and remove a few small feathers for DNA sampling. His hood is removed and pictures are taken as the final step in data collection.
Now it is time to release him. My brief interaction seems so fleeting. I entertain thoughts of taking up falconry as I watch the hawk being held at arm's length. I try to capture the release in slow motion video, but I misjudge the bird's trajectory and he quickly passes through the frame as he flies up and perches in a nearby tree. He turns and looks at us and ruffles his feathers. He appears to shake out all the indignity and stress in a flash, and he turns his head and looks out across the dormant weather-beaten pasture. What is he thinking at this moment? Maybe some movement in the grass caught his attention. He can see eight times better than we can, including seeing more color and infrared. He may be picking up the heat waves coming off of a vole in the pasture.
Two years of trapping have produced data on 71 hawks. The goal is to learn more about the origins of wintering Red-tails in Illinois. There are 12 subspecies, and by collecting feathers and analyzing hydrogen isotopes, it is possible to discover the latitude where the hawk spent the breeding season. Another goal of the research is to develop a better understanding of how climate change influences migration. Recent winter surveys indicate that Red-tails are migrating less due to warmer winters.
Red-tails are common due to their ability to adapt to humans and an altered environment. They are generalists that tolerate us and can survive in our midst. This is the only way an animal can be abundant now. Our environment is too degraded for sensitive specialists to thrive. Red-tails are the hawk equivalent of Canada Geese, Starlings, Mallards, and House Sparrows.
After this promising start, we are confronted with the stark reality that Red-tails are wary birds. We spend the rest of the day engaged in a sort of chess match with the hawks. We cover a lot of miles, set a lot of traps, and watch Red-tails respond in various ways. This mostly entails some version of hovering over or standing near the trap and looking at the mouse. We did not catch another hawk. We did get to spend some quality time with several mice. They were protected by two layers of wire and they seemed to know that they were safe. The traps are pulled within 15 minutes and several mice are rotated through the traps to limit their exposure to cold weather.
At one point we drive past a large restored prairie. A section of it has been burned. There are hawks everywhere. A Rough-legged Hawk (Ruffy), two Northern Harriers, a Kestrel and several Red-tails are flying over or perched nearby. This is the most hawk activity we have seen all day and highlights the importance of habitat quality and quantity. The birds are there in search of small rodents hiding in the prairie. They must have been successful in finding them, as our mouse in a cage did not attract any interest. At this point, the sun starts to set, and our adventure is coming to a close. We start to make our way back north. When we get on the interstate I start seeing Red-tails perched in the trees along the median. Based on the day’s close encounter with a Red-tail, I feel like I have a superpower now as I can zoom in and visualize each perfect and glorious bird in great detail.