Have Birds of Prey Started Getting Lazier/Cleverer

They get a double treat: something good to eat and a nice thermal off of the hot pavement.

Birding and driving don't mix....maybe their learning to watch inattentive drivers...?

It sounds like it is they that have noticed you!

They have likely deduced that people tend to drive in the direction of objects they are looking at, so while you watch them on top of the poles they are baiting you to accidently drive into and hit said pole.

Nature's roadkill.

Hitchcock only sratched the surface. There is much to be found about strange bird behaviour.

Hawks have always been opportunistic predators, and this method has been used to catch hawks for over a hundred years by tangle foot raptor traps. These are usually a pigeon with it's feet tied to a piece of wood too large for the hawk. The pigeon wears a vest with a few dozen monofilament slip knot foot traps. The pigeon tossed from a car or train where a hawk is sitting, and flutters down as if hit by the train. You can also cage some mice in a mesh cage and surround it with the monofilament slip-knot foot traps. The hawk stoops on the pigeon/mice and gets it's talons caught in the slip knots and the hawker in leather gloves etc, walks over and hoods the hawk tethers it and cages it. Then follows a training period.

Hawk Trapping

It's change in stratergy - why fly when you can conserve energy and watch for lunch. I'd compare it to urbanised foxes that raid wheely bins. Light supports are a great place for them to perch and scan the landscape. Predatory birds are usually highly intelligent and adaptable.

I have an ongoing battle with magpies. Even if I provide cover for smaller garden birds, the magpies will sit and wait,

I heard that in some parts of Texas, they use old wooden telephone poles with crossbars to keep the prairie dog population down. They put the poles up in infestation areas, the birds of prey relax and launch for their lunches. The ranchers prefer it to using rednecks with rifles because it seems they lubricate their aim with "Colorado cool aid" (google it, I had to :)

Drew K

When one sees two prairie dogs, which one is virtually the one, and which one is really the one?

...The one in your tub wearing a duck hat is probably not real....

That must have been triple Schnapps night.

Ammo is cheap...shoot both!

Drew K

Thanks for all the replies. I guess I'll have to wait to see if the trend continues, and, if anyone else sees it as a notable change in behaviour.

I have noticed no hawk, or kite near our house in town this year. Wetter year than two years ago. Doves are a lot safer at this time, and we are feeding them grain, so they stay within eating radius for when SHFT.

I visited a Trout hatching facility recently. Hawks had been helping themselves to the smaller fish. The authorities put a net over the pond to keep the hawks out. I'm not sure how long it took, but the birds figured out that if they descended on the net as a group, they could put enough stress on the net that it would descend into the water and they could help themselves to the trout. A little cooperation is all it took, but from birds? Who knew.

Is there road construction or has construction recently been completed where you have noticed the shift in behavior?

I suspect where undergrowth has been allowed for years to grow fairly unrestrained (beyond road-side clearing/mowing) that perching in one spot might not provide sufficient opportunity for a bird of prey to dine, necessitating flying around get a better view.

I would think that over a 30 year period there has definitely been construction that has both reduced the area available for nesting, as well as groumd cover for their usual prey.

These birds are migratory. They are most noticed at this time. Hovering over the highway looking for a quick meal as they migrate. That at this time of the year most are on a home range. So sitting on a pole to hunt is not unusual for a hawk. A lot less noticed while driving if perched.

A kestrel take prey on the wing at most times. So a bit unusual for them to hunt from a perch.

Where did you see a red kite on a US highway. Not native of the US. Most likely a Red Tail Hawk.

Where did you see a red kite on a US highway. Not native of the US. Most likely a Red Tail Hawk.

I live in the UK: we have had a huge resurgence of red kites over the last about ten to twenty years. I'm pretty sure it was a very deliberate piece of conservation in Wales, but it has spread further East. They are a fantastic sight.

"...motorway (US freeway)..."

...made me think you were driving in the US as well, but I see now what you were doing there.

As did I. So the info was discriptive not location.

Did confuse me as the home address was in the UK.