#NTVartists: Raptors of Long Island Through the Lens of Shane Etter (@BigOleMrKanish)

April 8, 2020 Richard J Nardo

Photography by Shane Etter
Words by Rich Nardo

While I may not ‘love’ social media, Instagram has provided the opportunity to develop friendships with a lot of awesome people in the Long Island wildlife and photography communities. One of those friends is Shane Etter, a prodigiously talented photographer whose bird portraits are always a highlight of my Insta-feed.

Last February, Shane and I collaborated on a #NTVblog featuring his photos of the various owls that can be found on Long Island at different times throughout the year. Today, I am excited to post our follow-up, exploring the diverse non-owl species of raptors that can be found here as well.

For more of Shane’s photography, please follow him on Instagram.

Bald Eagle
Haliaeetus leucocephalus

Few sights are more majestic than a Bald Eagle in flight or stoically perched in a tree. Even before the United States adapted it as our national emblem in 1782, many of America’s Native People regarded the Bald Eagle as a spiritual symbol. Their distinctive white-feathered head contrasts beautifully with the chocolate-brown of the rest of their plumage, and their massive wingspan - which can surpass six feet - can be simultaneously awe-inspiring and invoke primordial fear.

The Bald Eagle is a fierce predator, soaring high overhead and diving at speeds up to 100 mph to catch a fish or other prey. They’ve been known to hunt collaboratively, with one partner flushing a target out into the open and the other snatching it up. They are also opportunistic and have been known to harass Osprey, other small raptors, and even mammals into dropping their kill. Bald Eagles aren’t above indulging in an easy meal of carrion, including dead fish that have washed ashore.

Bald Eagles, like most other raptors, fell victim to the effects of DDT and other pesticides during the 20th century. This issue was compounded by the fact that they were also regularly hunted for sport or to “protect” fishing grounds for many decades. In New York State, the Department of Environmental Protection successfully implemented a reintroduction program using specimens from other states, mainly Alaska, and we have seen a rebounding in their numbers. Today, Eagles are thriving in most of the state, and there are eight known pairs on Long Island with nests in East Hampton, Shelter Island, Islip, Brookhaven, Huntington and North Hempstead according to State Department of Environmental Conservation wildlife biologist, Kelly Hamilton.

Osprey
Pandion haliaetus

The Osprey, or Seahawk, is the most accomplished angler of all raptors. Studies show they are able to catch a fish about once every four dives and often only have to hunt for 12 minutes before finding success. They owe this success-rate to a few key characteristics that set them apart from other raptors. First, they have a reversible outer toe that allows them to grasp with two toes in front and two behind. They also have barbed pads on the soles of their feet that allow them to steadily grip slippery fish. Osprey will dive up to three feet in pursuit of prey, and their wing joints are specialized to allow a vertical takeoff when emerging back into the sky. Once in the air, a few shakes will shed the excess water from their feathers - which are oiler than any other species of hawk in order to repel water more efficiently.

If you've ever seen an Osprey dive for a fish, you'll notice that they dive head first for less wind resistance. Moments before they reach the water, they adjust their bodies to lead with their talons as they enter the water. All the while they never take their eyes off of the prey. It really is something special to see an osprey hunt.

In New York, there are two main breeding populations of Ospreys; one in Long Island and one in the Adirondacks. The difference in these two regions exemplifies the diversity of the environments an Osprey can adapt to as they really only need a body of water stocked with fish to thrive. From the 1950s through the 1970s, Ospreys were a rare sight around Long Island. The use of the pesticide DDT had decimated the population - thinning their eggshells and poisoning adults throughout the area. Since DDT was banned and efforts, such as man-made nest constructs, to restore the population have been implemented, Osprey populations have grown by about 2.5% (from 1966 to 2015) annually according to the North American Breeding Bird Survey.

Each spring it takes Long Island’s Ospreys population roughly 20-30 days to travel the almost 3000 miles from South America to our shores. During that time, they often follow the same route and stick to the same resting spots. An Osprey can log over 160,000 migration miles over its lifetime, which is typically 15-20 years. Using tracking devices, one bird was identified to have flown over 2,700 miles during a 13 day period - from Martha’s Vineyard in Massachusetts to French Guiana in South America.

Red Tailed Hawk
Buteo jamaicensis

The Red Tailed Hawk is North America’s most common hawk and can be found all over the mainland continent, as well as in Central America and the West Indies. They are the prototype of the ‘buteo’ shape, which is defined by broad, rounded wings and a short tail. Red Tails can be found circling high over fields looking for rodents and other small animals. They attack in a slow, controlled dive with eyes focused on the ground, heavy wingbeats and legs outstretched - a method in stark contrast to that of a falcon.

The Red Tailed Hawk, as a species, gets a lot of work as voice-over actors. Their iconic scream is often used in film, no matter what species of raptor is being shown on screen. Buteo jamaicensis is also incredibly adapted to life in the air. While it is one of the biggest birds in North America, even the largest females weigh only about three pounds. For reference, a similar-sized small dog might weigh ten times that.

Red Tailed Hawks are another conservation success story. After falling victim to the same DDT-induced issues that many other raptors struggled through, today their numbers are stable and growing thanks in part to the fact they’ve adapted to nesting in major cities.

Cooper’s Hawk
Accipiter cooperii

The Cooper’s Hawk is a fairly common sight on Long Island, and one the world’s most skillful fliers. In wooded areas, they can be found ripping through cluttered tree canopies at incredibly high speeds as they pursue their favorite prey, smaller birds. They are about the size of a crow (though females are a bit larger) and they exhibit the classic accipiter shape - broad, rounded wings, large head and a beautiful, long tail.

You can identify Cooper’s Hawks in flight through the ‘flap-flap-glide’ style and extra-long tail. They find success hunting in dense vegetation by out-maneuvering their prey. They capture small birds with their feet and kill them by repeatedly squeezing, which is different from a Falcon’s method of biting their prey once it’s captured. Interestingly enough, they’ve even been known to drown their prey by holding it underwater until it ceases to struggle. They outsmart prey mid-chase by rapidly flying close to the ground then rising over an obstruction to surprise it’s soon-to-be meal on the other side. This high-speed lifestyle is, unsurprisingly, a dangerous way to live. In a study of over 300 Cooper’s Hawk skeletons, about 23% showed old, healed-over fractures of the chest bones.

Adult Cooper’s Hawks are a steely blue-gray with warm, reddish bars on their underside and darker bands on the tail. Juvenile specimens are mostly brown on top and white below with distinct brown streaking on the upper breast. One of the hardest birding field IDs is differentiating between Cooper’s Hawks and the slightly smaller Sharp-shinned Hawk. Over the past few decades, Cooper’s Hawks have grown more comfortable living in urban and suburban landscapes; making use of the large number of Rock Pigeons and Mourning Doves that call those areas home as prey.

Juvenile Cooper’s Hawk

Peregrine Falcon
Falco peregrinus

The Peregrine Falcon is one of the most interesting raptors found in the United States. They are considered the fastest animal on the planet and can reach speeds of up to 200 mph when they’re swooping to dive-bomb their prey. People have also trained falcons for over a thousand years as hunting partners and they have always been considered one of the most prized birds. In fact, the breed’s comfort-level with human beings aided in the attempt to reestablish their population after it was depleted during the DDT years.

The Peregrine Falcon is found on every continent in the world, with the exception of Antarctica, and on a number of oceanic islands. They are the largest falcon in North America, and the adults of the species are blue-gray with barred underparts and a dark head. Much like the Red Tailed Hawk, they love wide-open spaces, and are often most at home in coastal environments where they can prey on shorebirds. Fittingly the name falcon means “wanderer” and Peregrines have been known to travel as many as 15,500 miles per year. For instance, there is a nesting population in the Arctic tundra that spends their winters in South America. Despite the abundance of frequent-flyer miles, they have a remarkable sense of homing and there are nesting sites that have been in continuous use for hundreds of years, occupied by generations of falcons.

Peregrine Falcons have established populations, not just on Long Island, but throughout New York City. There are approximately 25 nesting pairs in the five boroughs, making it the highest concentration anywhere in the world. Like the Cooper’s Hawk, the abundance of pigeons keep the city’s falcon population well-fed and the tall buildings and bridges provide an excellent vantage point from which to hunt them.

American Kestrel
Falco sparverius

The Kestrel is America’s smallest falcon, but don’t let their size fool you. They are fierce predators that hunt insects and other small prey with unmatched intensity. Unlike humans, birds are able to see ultraviolet light and have been known to use that ability to track urine trails from small mammals like neon diner signs pointing them to their next meal.

The Kestrel is one of the most colorful members of the raptor family. Males have slate blue heads and wings that elegantly contrast with the rust-red back and tail while the wings of female Kestrels are reddish-brown. Both sexes have the defining black vertical bars on the side of their faces that are sometimes referred to as their “mustache and sideburn”. They are roughly the size of a Mourning Dove, though their head is larger, and they have long, narrow wings with a square-tipped tail. In flight, they are considered “gracefully buoyant” and, due to their small size, often get tossed around in the wing.

Photo by Rich Nardo

One issue that Kestrels deal with more than their larger relatives is that they are often prey themselves. Northern Goshawks, Red Tailed Hawks, Barn Owls, American Crows and both Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s Hawks have all been known to hunt them from the air and rat and corn snakes both have them regularly on their menu. They build secure nests in tree cavities, and have been known to hide surplus kills in these cavities, as well as in grass clumps, tree roots, bushes, fence posts and tree limbs to make sure they have food for leaner times.

Merlin
Falco columbarius

The Merlin is the middle-sized falcon of the three we have here on Long Island (Peregrines are the biggest and Kestrels the smallest). They’re ambush hunters who often prey on song and shore birds depending on where they live. During medieval times, they were known as “lady hawks” and noblewomen - including Catherine the Great and Mary Queen of Scots - would use them to hunt SkyLarks. When not hunting with royals, Merlins sometimes team up to hunt large flocks of waxwings. One will flush the flock out and the other will swoop in a few moments later to capitalize on the confusion.

Merlins don’t build their own nests, preferring to take over abandoned nests of other raptors or crows. They are compact and powerful, and are generally dark and streaked, though color varies geographically. Adult male Merlins are slate gray to dark gray and females and juveniles of the species tend to be more brown. From underneath, they are heavily streaked and have dark wings. Their flight is powerful - with quick wingbeats and few pauses to glide. They’re defensive by nature and are known to harass larger raptors for fun.