Hawks do not like my hat.
Every day in summer I go out for a walk in a field near work wearing my hat. The second I set foot in that field, a pair of large, brown Swainson's hawks comes barrelling out of the sky or nearby forest and dive-bomb the hat while screaming, "KREE-ah!"
It's always a surprise and delight to see these huge, hungry predators in the skies over St. Albert, and the city is full of them.
Most birds of prey feed on other birds, says Gary Erickson, an ornithologist at the Royal Alberta Museum, birds that are drawn in by bird feeders. Others, such as peregrine falcons, see tall buildings as cliffs to nest on. As they're protected against hunting by law, most face few threats in the city besides cars and power lines. "If you leave them alone, they'll do fine by themselves."
Roving raptors
Feeder watchers might be most familiar with the merlin, says local birder Peter Demulder, a pigeon-sized grey-blue bird with pointed wings, great speed and a habit of snatching birds from feeders. "They have a 'Kee-kee-keee-kikiki' call, and it's very annoying to people because they start very early in the morning."
One German fellow recently asked if he could shoot them, he laughs. There are about six pairs of them in the city, Demulder estimates, which nest in the tops of big, old spruce trees. You'll often see them charging through flocks of sparrows to pick birds out of mid-flight. Merlins tend to have a favourite spot to perch, Erickson adds, and will often return there to eat their prey.
Swainson's are more common on the edge of town, Demulder says, since they prefer the open country. Unlike the similar red-tailed hawk, Swainson's have a dark breast, a brown edge along their wings, and a black-barred tail. They hunt Richardson's ground squirrels for their kids, according to bird guides, but prefer grasshoppers for themselves. The birds are usually seen circling high in the sky, a gliding habit that helps them migrate as far south as Argentina.
Less common is the sharp-shinned hawk, a yellow-legged, square-tailed, crow-sized bird known for its daring mid-air acrobatics. Their long tails and short, rounded wings make them exceptionally manoeuvrable, Demulder says, and they will often chase birds through the branches of the forest.
Rare, but reliable, are the ospreys, usually seen near their nest on the communications tower in the Riel Business Park. These huge, black-and-white birds are usually seen circling above Big Lake or Lacombe Lake, Demulder says, and recently had two fledglings leave their nest.
Ospreys are easy to identify — they're the ones that hunt for fish. "Every time it sees a fish, it stops and hovers," Demulder says. If you're lucky, you'll see it plunge into and often below the surface of the water and pop up with a fish.
What's that bird?
Spotting birds of prey is a matter of going to where they live, says birder Dan Stoker. Merlins prefer the tall trees of Grandin and Lacombe Park, for example, while red-tails frequent the open fields around Big Lake. Most favour high trees or lampposts from which they can survey their surroundings. Now that nesting season is over, some can be spotted circling high overhead, catching air currents in preparation for migration.
Most birds of prey populations are healthy in Alberta, Erickson says, but some are threatened by pesticides used on bugs and gophers. Habitat destruction also pushes them back from city limits. "As more and more forests go down, your hawk numbers go down."
Stoker suspects that those hawks are attacking me because I'm getting close to their nest. I think I just need a new hat.
