Swainson’s hawks keep the squirrels away

Published 12:21 pm Monday, September 12, 2016

I took this photo of a juvenile Swainson’s hawk sitting on a fence a few miles north of Enterprise. As I have mentioned before, these Buteos are difficult to identify as they are dark-phase, light phase, adults, juveniles, males and females. The Swainson’s hawks are quite numerous in Wallowa County, but not as plentiful as the red-tails. During springtime in Wallowa County, they feed mostly on the numerous Belding ground squirrels. When squirrels are not available, they live on mice, gophers and sometimes large grasshoppers. They seldom ever eat song birds.

These hawks breed from Alaska to Mexico, but they spend their winters mostly in Argentina. Their preferred habitats are open plains with sparse trees for their nests. When trees are not available, they will nest on cliffs. They hatch from two to four chicks. From a distance they look very similar to the rough-legged hawks that spend their winters here in Oregon and Washington, but the Swainson’s hawks are long gone when the rough-legged hawks come down from the Arctic to spend their winters here. The rough-legs arrive here in October and leave for their nesting grounds no later than March.

The Buteo hawks are extremely beneficial for the farmers and ranchers here in the Wallowa Valley as they raise their young on a diet of ground squirrels from March until late August. And for those who don’t know, these Buteo hawks will not eat a single dead ground squirrel that hunters have killed. They will only eat the ones they catch alive. Could it be that these hawks have a code of ethics that even the ravens, magpies and, yes, the eagles do not have? Of course, the squirrel hunters usually come out on weekends, whereas the hawks are on duty from dawn to sunset every day of the week.

So if anyone wants to watch these hawks, just go out on the Crow Creek Road or the road to Zumwalt Prairie. You will see them in the air, on the ground or sitting on a fence post.