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Posted by steve siegel on 16:18:36 12/02/12
I spend a lot of time at STAs, Lucky Hammock, etc, and watch a lot of Northern Harriers, mostly females and immatures, hundreds, maybe a thousand. They fly back and forth over the same territories all day long. I can recall seeing one bird, years ago, with some prey, perched on a fencepost. That's it.
Red-shouldered Hawks, Ospreys, Peregrines, Cooper's Hawks, Kestrels you always see with prey. Never Harriers. When they go to ground behind cover, they never stay there long enough to be eating something, and don't come up with remnants. The odd thing is that while other raptors soar, or sit, saving energy, Harriers actively flap and stoop and climb constantly, spending calories in the process. Their hunting technique has to be more efficient than it appears to my layman's eyes. Any answers?
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