Alison Krauss and Dead Raptor Fledglings

My #ThemeSong today is Alison Krauss’s version of Carolina In My Mind (by James Taylor), because that woman’s voice makes me cry, particularly given the idealistic nature of the song.

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On May 20, my neighbor down the street sent a group text that said, “Our back alley pine tree hawk nest has two fledglings. Very fluffy. So cool!” She welcomed everyone to come see.

Two weeks later, she sent another group text: “Sad news. We have not seen hawk parents since the big storm Friday. One of the fledglings is now at the foot of the pine tree - fell? I am burying him this AM. Another remains in the tree and is sad. I called the local rehab group yesterday. Not much to be done. Welcome your ideas.“ In a later text, she explained, "Rehab folks said this sometimes happens. Occasionally hawk parents are trying to encourage fledglings to go out in their own."

Red Shouldered Hawk Fledgling at Base of Tree 😢

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My neighbor had called CLAWS, the Piedmont Wildlife Center and other local animal rescue organizations, to no avail, and was now contacting the neighborhood listserve, fire station, and local climbers and tree companies. Meanwhile, I left voicemail messages with the Carolina Raptor Center (CRC) in Charlotte and the Rocky Mountain Raptor Center. That afternoon, I received text messages from the CRC informing me that it’s illegal to remove a raptor from its nest regardless of the circumstances. The CRC contact insisted at least one parent was alive, though my neighbors, who had been watching the parents bring food to the nest since the fledglings hatched and who hadn’t seen any sign of the parents for 5 days, were sure the remaining fledgling was going to die of starvation or, like its sibling, by trying to leave the nest too soon/weak. Meanwhile, the fledgling was calling incessantly for its parents, growing weaker each time, and the sound was breaking my neighbors’ hearts.

That evening, my neighbor informed us that a man with the American Wildlife Refuge in Raleigh had offered to take the hawk fledgling in, rehab it for a bit, then transfer it to the Carolina Raptor Center in Huntersville for "mouse school." However, he preferred for the baby hawk to "throw itself from nest" and said "they can usually survive a fall." Around 10 PM, she texted that a local climber, who does cat/animal rescues from trees, was coming around noon the next day to remove the fledgling from its nest high up in the tree.

My neighbor sent this text the following morning: “Sad news. I think the fledgling has died. No movement or cries this morning. Interestingly an adult hawk has been in the vicinity - not visible but I can hear it (different from last few days) and the fledgling is not responding to the cries.” The rescue climber arrived mid-day, as planned, and brought the dead fledgling to the base of the tree 😢.

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Did the previous week’s heat wave confuse the parents into thinking it was later in the summer than it was, so that they thought it was time to leave the fledglings and force them to fly out of necessity? Did another raptor (the one that was heard when the last dead fledgling was found) harass the parents and keep them from visiting the nest? Did one parent die and the other just move on? Or did the parents abandon the fledglings because they thought they were somehow defective? We will never know. But if both parents are truly gone, then the most likely explanation appears to be rodent poisoning.

Rodenticides have been detected in 92 percent of the dead raptors found in California’s San Diego County and 49 percent of 12 species of necropsied raptors in New York (81 percent of Great Horned Owls). A Tufts University study discovered rodenticide poisoning in 88 percent of the dead raptors tested 😢. Administering Vitamin K immediately after rodenticide poisoning increases a raptor’s chance of recovering; but “by the time the bird shows symptoms and someone brings it in for care, it’s often already too late.”

The second-generation (most potent and fast-acting) rodenticides most toxic to birds include bromodialone, brodifacoum, difethialone, and difenacoum, and all have been approved for use by the EPA for sale over the counter. During the time between ingestion and death, these rodents are often eaten by raptors, owls, snakes and other predators who can then poison animals farther up the food chain. These poisons have also been found in the bodies of sick and dead pets and even children.

Although in 2008 the EPA acknowledged these rodenticides pose an “unreasonable risk” to children, pets, and wildlife and gave manufacturers three years to stop selling them to residential customers, sales in large quantities (i.e., to farmers) and the bait boxes used by exterminators (and residential customers) were exempted. Since then, several companies have filed lawsuits questioning the EPA’s authority to restrict such sales at all.

If you use or are thinking about using poison to get rid of rodents on your property, please consider all the other animals you may be killing and use a less destructive method, like trapping the rodents or eliminating the food and habitat sources on your property. Hawks, owls, and other rodent predators are Nature’s organic and sustainable way of controlling the rodent population, so the last thing you/we should be doing is killing them.

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On the plus side, life goes on. Here's my latest #VideoOfTheDay, of a daddy House Finch feeding his second brood of babies this summer on my front porch in Durham, NC :-) .

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