Wednesday, February 15, 2017 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon
Tales from a
Sisters
Naturalist
by Jim Anderson
Watching for
tagged raptors
The photo accompany-
ing this column was taken
near Sawyer Park in Bend.
The tags made the hawk
(a juvenile red-tail) stand
out like a sore thumb, even
to someone who really
isn’t interested in birds. It
caught the eye of bird pho-
tographer Chas Savage. He
knew it was important for
him to capture an image of
it. Afterwards, he went to
the Banding Lab website,
reported his sighting and
discovered it was tagged at
the Portland Airport just a
couple of weeks earlier.
At last report, the hawk
was still hanging around,
keeping an eye out for
rodents and rabbits in Bend.
Airliners occasionally
run into a bird, and visa-
versa. The incredible story
of the collision between
geese and an airliner, now
made into a popular movie,
“Sully,” is an example.
The film is about Chesley
“Sully” Sullenberger III, an
American Airlines retired
airline captain and glider
pilot, hailed as a national
hero when he successfully
executed an emergency
landing in the Hudson
River on January 15, 2009.
His aircraft was disabled
when it struck a flock
of Canada geese (or the
other way around) during
climb-out from La Guardia
International Airport in New
York. All 155 people aboard
the aircraft survived with no
personal injuries because
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Captain Sullenburger imme-
diately understood he had no
power and was in a glider.
He pushed the nose down to
keep up airspeed and took
the only action open to him
— a water landing in the
Hudson River.
Aircraft and birds have
been running into each other
for just about as many years
as both have been shar-
ing airspace. The Wright
Brothers’ first aircraft just
missed shorebirds over the
sand hills of North Carolina.
Special workers at the Reno
Air Races today do all they
can to keep birds away from
Reno/Stead Airport before,
during, and after the air
races.
That particular red-
tail was tagged at the
Portland Airport by a col-
league of mine, Carole
Hallett. Carole’s a wild-
life biologist who’s part
of the team in the Port of
Portland Wildlife Hazard
Management Program who
have the responsibility of
doing everything they can to
prevent collisions between
aircraft and wildlife.
Like falconers of old,
who trapped the bird of prey
they wanted to train into the
art of falconry, Carole cap-
tures them with live bait
(usually mice). In my opin-
ion, and probably Carole’s
as well, there aren’t enough
adjectives in the English
language to describe what
a wild-caught raptor is like
to handle — and what one
can do to someone who is
careless.
Patagial markers are
attached (carefully) to the
leading edge of the raptor’s
wing, between the elbow
and shoulder. That loca-
tion makes the tag visible
whether the bird is flying or
perched, and will be sighted
quicker than one with just
the aluminum band on the
leg.
On ce t h e rap t o r i s
equipped with the band and
tags it is taken at least 40
miles from the airport and
released in areas where there
are no other hazards. The
biologists take into consid-
eration weather conditions
when they release the birds.
In summer and fall the birds
are released on the east side
of the airport, while in win-
ter they are released west of
the airport.
Hallett has captured,
banded and released over
2,500 birds — mostly red-
tails and American kestrels
— since she began working
with the airport in October
of 1999.
“It’s primarily a safety
issue; reducing the inci-
dence of raptor collisions
with airplanes (bird strikes),
and incidentally benefiting
the birds by moving them
out of a potentially hazard-
ous environment,” she said
of her work.
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PHOTO BY CHAS SAVAGE
Adult red-tailed hawk wearing orange wing tags.
She has had recoveries of
banded and tagged raptors
from as far away as Mexico
and Canada, and in the USA
from Montana, Oregon,
Washington and California.
The majority of U.S. sight-
ings are from western
Oregon. Once Carole started
using orange wing (pata-
gial) tags she began getting
more reports of live birds.
When using just leg bands,
90 percent of reports were
of birds found dead, usually
hit by car, occasionally elec-
trocuted, shot or dead from
starvation or poisoning.
The tags give her a much
better idea of where the
birds go after release, and
also makes it easier to iden-
tify any that return to PDX.
Knowing who returns helps
the hazard-management
crew to evaluate which
release sites are working and
which are not. The really
good news is, 75 percent of
red-tails never return, and
the majority that do only
stay a short while before
moving on.
In addition to reported
sightings of tagged birds,
the USGS Bird Banding Lab
in Patuxent, Maryland keeps
tabs on all her banded birds.
People who see a banded
or tagged bird can report it
to the Bird Banding Lab at
www.reportband.gov.
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