Back in the Depression era, every hawk was a "chicken" hawk. In all honesty, I can't recall a single instance where a hawk took a chicken. Weasels would sure play havoc with peeps, and raccoons would occasionally raid the hen house, but swooping hawks grabbing chickens was more a myth than a reality.
When the owls go to bed after a night of hunting, the raptors begin their day as the night sky brightens in the east. Hawks are some of nature's best predators. They have keen eyesight that can spot a mouse 100 yards below. They are fascinating raptors.
"Raptor" comes from a Latin word meaning "plunderer." It refers generally to all birds of prey and more specifically to eagles, hawks, and falcons. I don't know how many species of raptors are in this area, but it's possible to see the goshawk, sharp-shinned, Cooper's red-tailed, red-shouldered, broad-winged and the falcons-peregrine (duck hawk ), merlin (pigeon hawk) and kestrel (sparrow hawk).
Raptors are quick, efficient predators. They have sharp talons and strong-hooked beaks; bills and feet vary in size and shape according to the species' prey preferences. Chuck Fergus, in a raptors, information sheet, mentions that the eyesight of some raptors is as sharp as that of a human being looking through an 8X binocular. The eyes of hawks and falcons are located in the front of the head, giving the birds binocular vision and enabling them to judge distance. Their hearing is acute, but their sense of smell is poor. Fergus says it might not even exist.
In hunting, raptors may soar high, sit and watch from a perch or strike a prey in midair. When a hawk or falcon drops to attack, tendons spread its feet. Upon impact, the toes automatically clench and drive the talons deep. A snap from the hooked bill can crush an animal's skull or break its back. Raptors "mantle" prey after killing it, crouching and spreading their wings to form a shield that hides it from other predators. The bird may eat on the ground or carry its kill to a feeding spot, often a fencepost or tree limb, where it plucks its prey and tears the meat apart with its beak. Unlike an owl, a raptor does not swallow its food whole or in large chunks. Hours after eating, a hawk or falcon will regurgitate a pellet containing any feathers, fur or small bones swallowed accidentally.
Hawks and falcons help control insect, rodent, and small bird populations. They are a natural predatory force which improves a prey species by making it develop alertness, speed, and other survival attributes, and by weeding out unfit individuals. Raptors are also environmental indicators. Pollutants accumulate in natural food chains, and predators are usually the first wild species to show ill effects: failure to reproduce, thin egg shells, and nesting failure, or death through poisoning. Heavy metals and chlorine-based pesticides such as DDT, aldrin, dieldrin and heptachlor reduce raptors' numbers.
Many hawks and falcons fly south each autumn; species migrating in greatest numbers are often those whose food supplies are diminished. Some hawks that breed here winter as far south as Peru. During migration, a raptor can cover several hundred miles daily. Weather conditions play an important role during migration.
In Pennsylvania, many migrating birds follow ridges paralleling the Allegheny Plateau, climbing high on thermals that rise along these ridges. Hawk Mountain, near Kempton in southeastern Pennsylvania, is a famous spot from which to observe migrating raptors.
Many raptors mate for life. They nest high above the ground on sturdy limbs, in the crotches of trees, or on rock ledges. Nests are loosely built of sticks and twigs, and many are lined with feathers. A mated pair will either remodel an old nest or build a new one, occasionally starting on top of a squirrel's or a crow's nest.
