Bird Strike Force

A new challenge here: Thousands of grackles (boat tailed and common) are coming it at dusk to roost in the beautiful trees and building around the square and bridges leading to the keys in downtown Miami.  The greenery and trees are a beautiful addition, but the birds also find it appealing for safe roosting.  The peak of this problem is in the winter months, where these birds roost together to keep warm.  There is also a problem of the same birds stealing food from customers dining outside.  And bathing in the swimming pools.  Today, there was an afternoon patrol with a pair of Harris' hawks.  They followed well, but really likes the big banyon trees in the area.  I then brought all four hawks down to a staging area at the side of the hotel, on a cadge, waiting for the birds to start flocking in.  Again I was patient to let the hawks learn the new area and see that they are to chase the birds.  Two hawks paired up and chased the birds around.  Whenever they landed in a tree, about 90% of the birds moved on.  My survey of the area after dark, showed fewer no roosting birds in the area I put the most pressure on, and they were primarily across the street.  We will put pressure on them each evening to see how each patrol drives more birds away.

As a falconer, we see things in nature that many miss.  A dove flew across the street while the Harris' hawks were in a tree.  She started waiving her wings, I initially thought she was taking a dust bath in the road.  The Harris hawks could not resist the fluttering wings and gave chase.  The clever dove was feigning injury to draw the hawks away from her nesting area.   It worked and I thought that only killdeer do a false injury to draw predators away from their ground nests.

Photos coming later