There are many reasons people join the Audubon Society.  Some join to become part of a community that strives to improve the quality of life through education, advocacy, and community activism.  But most of us were attracted through our shared interest in and love for birds.  In fact, the central organizing theme of the Audubon Society membership is birds.  For some, this “bird lust” is expressed by feeding birds in our yards with systems from simple to elaborate.  Others bird as often as they can, maintaining a life list and dropping whatever they are doing to go see a rarity just posted on Tweeters.

But whether a backyard or outback birder you likely have a favorite.  A bird that you look forward to seeing, it may have special meaning or it just gives you pleasure to watch.  There are so many.  The warblers are brilliant.  Grouse, ptarmigan, and quail display beautiful plumage but would rather run than fly.  Who does not wait for spring when we can rise in the morning and fall asleep in the evening to the song of the Swainson’s thrush?  There are so many.  However, my preference is for birds that make flight look easy.  As a kid, the summer evening skies would always include common nighthawks.  Staring slack-jawed, I would sit mesmerized by their stiff-winged flight.  Swallows on the other hand make flight look like great fun.  Such agility in the air compounded with a constant staccato chatter leads one to believe that swallows not only enjoy their flying, but intend to tell everyone about it!  Don’t ignore the obvious; all gulls daily demonstrate their mastery of the air.  They soar on the lightest of breeze and maneuver in gale force winds in a ceaseless search for food.  Though fabulous animals of the air, there is one above all I look forward to seeing.

I know we are to call them northern harriers (Circus cyaneus) but I still cling to marsh hawk.  Though they are not an exclusive inhabitant of marshes, marsh hawk is so much more descriptive of the bird.  The marsh hawk has many unique characteristics.  In most raptors differences between the sexes is subtle.  Not so in marsh hawks, the sexual dimorphism is dramatic.  Males are a gray that merges with the sky while females are an earth blending rufous.  It is a raptor that wants to be an owl.  Possessing an owl-like facial disc, they hunt with both their eyes and ears.  They are almost constantly on the move flying low over hedgerows in search for prey.  This affords the patient birder with many opportunities to witness a ball of feathers drop into tall grass to pounce on prey.  But for me it is their ability to be so buoyant so close to the earth that make them a joy to watch.  It creates awe and wonder in me to see a bird float so effortlessly.  It is like Hollywood special effects for free.  Circus cyaneus is the bird I always look forward to seeing and could sit and watch all day.

Currently, the marsh hawk population in Washington is stable but this is not the case in other states.  Because it relies on open grass and farm land, two habitats that are in decline, marsh hawks in our future is not a certainty.  Unfortunately, for many birds in Washington State their situation is worse.  Check out the Washington Audubon, “State of the Birds” report (http://wa.audubon.org/new/audubon/userdocuments/State_of_the_Birds_LR.pdf) to see if your favorite bird is one of the 93 species that Washington Audubon has listed as “at risk”.

(Written and provided by J. Baker)

 

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