Goshute Mountains home to variety of hawks

Wednesday, Oct. 13, 1999 | 10:39 a.m.

RENO, Nev. - Pearl the pigeon was having a rough day. Dressed in a leather harness, she flapped about at the end of a string on the crest of the Goshute Mountains in eastern Nevada, looking to predators flying above like an injured and tempting snack.

To a passing Cooper's hawk, it was temptation enough. With wings tucked for speed and talons outstretched, he swooped in for the kill. Focused on lunch, however, he didn't notice the net. In a twist of fate, it was he who was caught, not Pearl.

Although Pearl and about 150 other lure birds might not agree, their stressful jobs serve a higher purpose - helping us better understand the habits and habitats of migrating raptors.

"We do everything we can to keep them safe and comfortable," said Aaron Barna, who spends many of his days each autumn holding the other end of the string. "They only work two-hour shifts every other day. And if we see any additional signs of stress, we give them the day off. We're not trying to be mean to these birds. We're trying to catch raptors."

Raptors are that order of birds with keen eyes and hooked beaks that catch their prey with their talons. They include eagles, hawks, vultures, kites, kestrels, falcons, osprey, goshawk, harriers and owls. Each autumn, millions of raptors migrate south from the northern reaches of our continent to feeding grounds in the southern United States, Mexico and Central America.

Between Aug. 15 and Nov. 5, the Goshute tagging station operates as one of 17 Hawkwatch International research sites across the western United States, from northern Washington to the Texas coast. It is, however, one of the most significant.

Because of the funneling effect of converging mountains to the north and the hard-to-cross Great Salt Lake Desert to the east, more raptors ride the thermals and updrafts along the Goshutes than anywhere else in the American West.

"Raptors are great ambassadors," said Aimee Weldon, Hawkwatch's site educator at the Goshute tagging station. "They're really beautiful birds, and they're also excellent barometers of the health of the ecosystem. Because they live at the top of the food chain like we do, they can tell us how everything in the in the ecosystem is doing. If something in the habitat is unhealthy, it affects the raptors' prey, which in turn affect the raptors."

Paul Grindwold, Hawkwatch's outreach coordinator, said the raptors generally are doing well.

"Electrocution is probably the biggest issue. A lot of raptors die on the power poles, and with 5,000 additional communication towers expected in the West to keep up with the growing cell phone market, it's a problem that really needs to be addressed." In addition, deforestation is affecting birds that require older stands of trees to nest, such as the spotted owl and northern goshawk.

Last year, a record 25,000 raptors passed the Goshutes. Of those, more than 3,400 were caught and banded. Although as many as 16 species have been sighted at Goshute, the region attracts mainly sharp-shinned, Cooper's and red-tailed hawks, turkey vultures and American kestrels. Every once in a while, researchers are treated by a visit from a northern goshawk, peregrine falcon or golden eagle.

This year, however, has been slower. As of last Sunday, only 11,888 birds have passed the Goshutes. Just more than 1,000 have been banded.

"It's hard to speculate in the middle of the season," said Howard Gross, Hawkwatch's executive director. "But it seems to be slower than last year. It could be a natural fluctuation in populations. Then again, it's been a warmer September this year and the birds might be staying in their summer grounds later than normal"

On a good warm day ahead of a cold front, more than 1,000 raptors can pass the Goshutes. The record is 1,800 in a single day. About 10 percent of those will be caught.

The bulk of the birds become the task of observers like Jerry Ligouri, who spends his days in a lawn chair, peering through binoculars and identifying the species.

"Believe it or not, this can be physically hard," said Ligouri, who's been identifying hawks for 14 years and working with Hawkwatch for three. "By the end of the day, your eyes and neck hurt like crazy."

The other difficulty is telling the difference between species - between Cooper's and sharp-shinned hawks, for example. Even at close range, the two look remarkable alike, especially to the untrained eye.

"You really have to sit up here for days and days, looking at hundreds of birds," Weldon said. "Then you can start noticing the little details."

At the end of each season, the data collected at Goshute and other Hawkwatch stations are compiled into a report which is distributed to the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Forest Service and other interested organizations. Over time, the data help reveal where the hawks are flying and how well their populations are surviving.

"All we want to do is to keep them flying," Weldon said. "Hopefully, all this data will make that happen."

Hawkwatch can be reached at 800-484-6808 or www.hawkwatch.org.