Diurnal Roadside Raptors

     Over the years, I have seen many American kestrels, which are a kind of small hawk related to peregrine falcons, hovering into the wind on rapidly beating, pointed wings, over broad, grassy median strips of expressways, including during winter.  These little raptors were watching for field mice in the grass of those strips.  In fact, up to six different kinds of diurnal raptors (hawks) can be easily spotted by riders in vehicles along roadsides, including highways, in farmland in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, as elsewhere in North America, during fall and winter.  Those raptors perch on roadside wires, poles and tree limbs to watch for rodents and birds to catch and eat.  Those raptors are, in order of the numbers of times I have seen them along country roads, red-tailed hawks, American kestrels, Cooper's hawks, merlins, peregrines and rough-legged hawks.
     Big, stately and permanent residents as a species here in Lancaster County, red-tailed hawks are exciting to see along roads, particularly expressways with their broad shoulders of scattered trees, fences and infrequently mowed grass and other plants.  Those shoulders of hundreds of acres along many miles of highways are mowed occasionally, but never plowed, allowing field mice and other little critters to become established and multiply their numbers.  Mice, therefore, become numerous among the grass and weeds of roadsides and consume the seeds of those plants.  The red-tails soar majestically over expressway edges, or perch handsomely in trees by them to watch for mice in the grass and weeds, dropping into the grass to capture mice in their sharp, curved talons.    
     The diminutive and permanent resident kestrels perch on roadside wires and the twigs of trees along roads to watch for mice in the grass.  These small hawks also hover gracefully into the wind as they search for mice, dropping to the ground to catch a victim.  Like all hawks, kestrels have sharp claws that grab and stab their prey.
     Cooper's hawks are forest birds originally, but have adapted to nesting and hunting birds in older suburbs with their many tall trees and hunting in surrounding fields.  Coop's stand on roadside poles to watch for rock pigeons, mourning doves, starlings and other birds in cropland.  Fast on the wing, Cooper's hawks pursue their panicked, swerving prey in flight across open farmland until they catch and kill them.  Their flights after victims are exciting to see!
     Peregrines and merlins, both falcons, migrate through Lancaster County in autumn, and a few of each winter here as well.  Also, some peregrines nest under bridges and on city buildings in this county and surrounding ones in Pennsylvania.  But merlins raise young farther north.  Peregrines and merlins both perch on top of roadside poles in farmland to watch for pigeons, doves, starlings, sparrows, horned larks and other cropland birds.
     Falcons, traditionally, are open country birds where their great speed on swept-back, pointed wings benefits their capturing prey in the open.  They originally hunted victims on the tundra, prairies, beaches, salt marshes and similar habitats, but have recently adapted to farmland as well.
     Rough-legged hawks nest on the Arctic tundra, but some of them come this far south for the winter, hoping for easier hunting and more abundant prey.  Rough-legs perch in trees in fields and along rural roads to watch for mice and small birds.  They also hover majestically into the wind as they watch the ground for prey, a hunting technique they developed in the treeless tundra.
     Rough-legs once were more common in Lancaster County.  But as the wintering red-tail population here increased, wintering rough-leg numbers dropped.  I think they can't compete with the bigger, stronger red-tails for local cropland hunting territories.  The red-tails chase them off the farmland here.       
     Watch for these raptors, and others across the United States, when riding in a vehicle along country byways in winter.  They are all exciting to see when perched on roadside poles, wires and trees, or hovering elegantly into the wind over those roads.