An Hour of Farmland Hawks

     I suddenly saw the northern harrier cruising slowly into the wind and low over a field of red clover and foxtail grass.  Its long, stretched-out wings tilted slightly from side to side as the hawk constantly  stabilized itself in the south wind.  That hawk of marshes, salt marshes and other open habitats was hunting field mice and small birds.  And if that immature raptor had detected prey, it would have dropped to the ground to seize it in its long, sharp talons.
     For an hour on the late afternoon of October 30 of this year, I was driving on rural roads in farmland just south of New Holland, Pennsylvania.  It was a lovely, sunny day, but with cold wind typical of late october.  I was out to see birds or any other kinds of wildlife,  as well as pretty scenery and colored foliage on trees in meadows and fields.
     I did see a few kinds of adaptable, common birds during that hour of driving through cropland, including rock pigeons perched on silos and mourning doves sitting in partly-bare trees or flying over fields.  I also saw a few blue jays flying from hedgerow to hedgerow and a northern mockingbird in a multiflora rose bush in one of those hedges between fields.  And I saw a few pairs of mallard ducks swimming on a stream and a small flock of horned larks eating seeds on a recently plowed field.
     But it was the hawks and a bald eagle I noticed among the fields that made my little trip that afternoon the most interesting.  As I was driving out of New Holland and into the surrounding cropland, I saw a Cooper's hawk flying low and fast toward town.  It probably was in farmland all day to catch pigeons, doves, starlings and other birds and was now going to New Holland to perch overnight high in a tall spruce tree.
     Although Cooper's hawks traditionally live and hunt birds in woodlands, some pairs of them raise young in older suburban areas with tall coniferous trees.  A couple pairs of these raptors hatch offspring high in sheltering conifers in New Holland every year in recent years.  Perhaps that Coop was from one of those local families and it was going home to roost for the night.
     A little farther out of town, I saw a large, dark bird circling over the farmland ahead.  I stopped the car and trained my 16 power binoculars on it.  I saw its white tail when it turned in the sky!  It was a majestic adult bald eagle!!
     That eagle could have been a migrant going south for the winter.  Or it might have been a locally living bird because a pair of balds have raised at least a few pairs of young just outside of New Holland in recent years.  That eagle may have been one of the old pair, or one of their older young.
     I spotted the harrier a few minutes after I saw the eagle.  That harrier, no doubt, was a migrant from farther north or west because none of its kind nests here in southeastern Pennsylvania.  They are always a thrill to spot because they are big, graceful and pass through here in limited numbers.  
     Moving along, I saw a pretty male American kestrel on a roadside wire in the farmland I was in.  He might have been a locally-hatched bird or a migrant, as both are here at this time of year.  Either way, he was watching the grassy, weedy roadside shoulders for mice and grasshoppers to eat.
     I parked along another stretch of country road to scan nearby fields and hedgerows for birds and mammals.  There is where I saw the mockingbird and jays.  And I spotted a stately, immature red-tailed hawk perched on a dead limb of a live tree in a mid-field clump of tall trees.  That raptor was watching for gray squirrels, field mice and any other creatures it could catch and kill.  As I watched it, the red-tail took flight, circled a field a few times and landed on another dead branch on another live tree.  This red-tail could have been a migrant or a locally-hatched bird, as several pairs of red-tails nest in lone trees in fields and pastures, and wood lots, in this area.
     Though I looked for wildlife in Lancaster County cropland for only an hour, I was thrilled and inspired by the beautiful scenery, lovely weather and wonderful birds I saw in that human-made habitat.  It was time well spent.