Article published March 28, 2008
Red-tailed hawks easy to spot now
A former colleague called to wonder aloud why she is seeing so many red-tailed hawks lately.
Two of them swooped across her windshield in separate close encounters one morning earlier this week, and the eagle-eyed caller said she also is seeing lots of redtails perched on fence posts and on overhanging tree limbs along I-75 and other highways.
No one, of course, ever has be able to successfully interview redtails for a direct reply. But Mark Shieldcastle, a wild bird answer man, had a simple explanation. It is the peak of hawk migration, an annual rite of spring passage that has been under way for at least two weeks.
Too, this year, "the weather has kind of hung stuff up," said Shieldcastle, who is wetlands project leader at Ohio's Crane Creek Wildlife Research Station in Ottawa County. Many migrating redtails, among others, have tended to stack up in the region awaiting fairer weather to the north.
In addition, resident redtails are amid nesting season and are vigorously establishing and defending their territories from interlopers, so they will be more visible and aggressive than normal as well.
In short, Alfred Hitchcock has not come back from the grave with a horror sequel to The Birds, quipped Julie Shieldcastle, Mark's spouse and conservation director at Black Swamp Bird Observatory.She agreed with him on the migration explanation, but allowed that recovery by local redtail populations from the decimating effects of West Nile virus may be a lesser contributing factor. The virus has hammered great horned owls, crows and blue jays.
Kim Kaufman, BSBO's education director, added a third contributing possibility. It may just be a good year for rodents. Lots of field mice mean lots of redtails with appetites concentrated where these meadow voles are skittering.
In other bird news, Charles and Patricia Gardner of Luna Pier, Mich., took note of a report here Tuesday about the presence of hundreds of tundra swans in the western Lake Erie region. These majestic ivory-white arctic waterfowl also are staging hereabouts en route north.
The Gardners, however, have one-upped just about everyone. They have been watching up to 1,000 of the swans behind their home on a marshy bay north of Luna Pier.
"We have lived here since 1964 and have never seen something like this," the couple said, adding that they have "a ringside seat for this simply awesome sight."
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The 16th annual wild game dinner by Bono Baptist Church is set for tomorrow from 4 to 7 p.m. Follow the sign off State Rt. 2 at the Bono Curve in eastern Lucas County to the church, on Main Street in the village.
Vern Zunk, dinner organizer, said that about a dozen different game dishes are planned for the menu, including muskrat fixed using a classic a 70-year-old recipe. Some leftover tickets may be available at the door, but call Zunk to assure a ticket and a place at the table, 419-836-5084.
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Stream levels continue to subside on the Maumee and Sandusky rivers, which will improve prospects for walleye-run fishing action this weekend.
More and more anglers are getting into the act, and catching fish as well, with some limits (four walleye) coming ashore. Normal-water locales such as Side Cut Metropark and Buttonwood Public Access on the Maumee should receive increasing attention with falling stream levels.
Many anglers, however, will favor downriver high-water sites that have been productive so far, including Orleans Park and Fort Meigs on the Perrysburg side and the Towpath and foot of White Street Access on the Maumee side.
Walleye runs should be at peak in the next two weeks. Jacks or males to 6 1/2 pounds and averaging 2 1/2 to 3 pounds are being taken, along with some larger females.
John Jokinen at Jann's Netcraft said that one of his regulars, Andrew Pommeranz, has been using a larger floating jighead, a 1/0 size in orange, with good success in the muddy water. He dresses it with a three-inch plastic tail. As water clears, anglers likely will return to more standard floaters in No. 2 size, Jokinen added.
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Follow the Fish is set to resume in this space next Friday, April 4. Stay tuned.
Also, Earth Hour is set for 8 to 9 p.m. tomorrow night. So turn out your lights for an hour - really, save the juice. The topic will be addressed in this space Sunday.
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