ML587922501
- 性別與年齡
- 雌成鳥 - 1
- 標籤
- 巢
觀察細節
On 13 May 2023, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology Global Big Day Team (Lizzy Chouinard, Brooke Keeney, Whitney Mortimer, and Brian Sullivan) discovered a pair of dark morph adult Swainson's Hawks at the Marina Landfill (https://ebird.org/checklist/S137674635). Quasi-courtship behavior was observed that day, with the paler-winged individual presumably the male, and the more solidly dark bird presumably the female. On 9 June 2023, Paul Fenwick and BLS did a follow-up visit, and found the paler-winged adult. During 30 min of observation there was no sign of the second adult, leading us to speculate that it might be on the nest (https://ebird.org/checklist/S141021831). On 10 June 2023, BLS spent more time at the site, and found both adults again (https://ebird.org/checklist/S141155037). This time, both adults would only appear briefly together over the landfill before one of them would depart, typically off to the northeast toward the Salinas River riparian corridor. Don Roberson was able to secure permission for a small group of us to visit this otherwise restricted access area of the landfill on 24 June 2023, specifically with the intention of attempting to find and document this nest. A party of four birders, including Paul Fenwick, Rita Carratello, Don Roberson and BLS started searching the area around 9AM. After about an hour of finding nothing, we decided to split up, and Fenwick and Sullivan stopped along the river at a nice looking spot to listen for landbirds. Somewhat miraculously, a dark morph adult Swainson's was perched there in the cottonwoods, and we alerted Don and Rita to join us. We watched and photographed this bird for a while. After about a half hour of little activity, Fenwick and Sullivan moved over to the west side of the landfill to see if we could find any birds hunting that edge, as in previous visits, leaving Don and Rita to tend the perched adult. Shortly after our arrival on the opposite side of the landfill, Don and Rita sent a note that the bird had gone up toward the landfill, and shortly after that they sent another note saying it had come back with a prey item, and delivered it to the female, which had been sitting low and tight on a nest right in front of us the entire time! The nest is in the crown of a dying Salix along the river edge. Realizing that our close proximity could be a disturbance to the birds, we decided to leave them, although many people, trucks, and general commotion pass by this site repeatedly throughout the day, and these birds are likely used to it by now. We believe the female is incubating, and probably has been for several weeks now based on behavior observed in previous visits. Hopefully follow-up visits can be arranged later in the summer to check-up on the success of this pair--the first nest of this species in this area since 1915 (Roberson, D.; Monterey Birds 2nd Edition). With Swainson's now nesting again in the counties around Monterey, perhaps we will see a welcome resurgence of this species in the region in the coming decades.
技術資訊
- 相機
- 麥克風
- 配件
- 原始檔案大小
- 182.6 MB