Hawks are stars of weekly encounter
News from SignonSandiego
By Michael Stetz
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
February 3, 2008
RAMONA – The hawks were feisty. They flapped their wings. They tried to bite. They did not look very happy being in the hands of Dave Bittner, who runs the Wildlife Research Institute in Ramona.
It was good to see the hawks being, well, hawkish. The recent wildfires apparently haven’t decreased their population or sapped their strength. If anything, the fires probably helped them.
“Fire is tougher on people,” Bittner said.
First, the fire clears out hiding places that small mammals seek for safety, so it’s easier for the hawks to find them. Second, the fire gets rid of old plant life, allowing newer and heartier plants to take over, which increases the rodent population that the hawks prey on.
Bittner, a wildlife biologist, did a study after the 2003 Cedar fire to understand its effect on birds of prey. The bird population didn’t drop, he said.
He expects the same result this time, as well.
The Witch Creek fire burned nearly 200,000 acres and destroyed more than 1,100 homes. It came close to but spared the institute, a nonprofit that’s involved in a number of education and conservation projects, including the tracking of the golden eagle.
Although the rodent population seems to be doing well postfire, a raging wildfire doesn’t harm birds of prey, either. They simply fly from it. They even race ahead to feed on the fleeing rodents and rabbits.
So it was all good at the institute yesterday – that is, if you weren’t one of the trapped hawks that had it tough for a couple of hours. One minute they think they’re about to have a tasty mouse – that’s the bait – and the next they’re stuck in traps set by Bittner, who has federal permits to do such work.
He bands them for research and tracking purposes and sets them free. Each hawk is released exactly where it had been caught because the birds have their own territory. It could be a tough trip back home if they have to cross other hawk territories.
A few dozen people came to yesterday’s event. This is the 10th year the institute has run the Hawk Watch every Saturday in January and February, and it’s an amazing spectacle.
Bittner puts a hawk right up to your face. It stares at you. You think: Thank goodness I am not a mouse, not even the rich and famous Mickey one.
“They’re the top of the food chain,” said Bittner, who’s been fascinated by hawks since he was 11 years old.
Some can reach speeds of 150 mph. They have incredible eyesight to spot their prey. They’re light and strong. And as many as 19 species have been seen at the Ramona Grasslands preserve, a place they love to hit because of the abundance of small mammals.
Yesterday, off in the distance, was a wintering ferruginous hawk, which probably came from Utah or Montana, said Jim Hannan, a biology professor at Mesa College and a volunteer at the Wildlife Research Institute.
Josh Mann and his wife, Michelle, and their two children were at yesterday’s Hawk Watch. They’ve been coming for years. He’s one of the people who can offer proof that wildfire is worse for people. He lost his Ramona house to it.
“It’s nice to come out here and take part in something that’s normal,” Mann said.