Quote by: jewill

Hi BOP – to answer your question, the Red Tailed Hawk probably was poisoned by Warfarin, otherwise known as rat poison. The farmers spread this stuff around to kill the rodents, which it does very effectively, but not immediately. While the rats and mice are dying the raptors (and cats too) come along and think they have found an easy meal. Then the coyotes and raccoons, etc. join in and it goes all the way up the food chain.

OH what a shame - there must be a better way to control the rodents that will not affect other wildlife.

A thought - I've heard of trained raptors being used for bird and wildlife control at airports - maybe they could be used in the farmers' fields also.

Hi Jewill I'll make sure to stop in tomorrow to see how the hawk made out. Thanks for keeping us updated

It comes as no surprise that the Red Tailed Hawk that was rescued on Sunday was found dead in his cage on Monday morning. I really did not have much hope for him because he was so near death when we found him. In addition to the poisoning he had another problem that Rob has been noticing lately in buteo-type birds; his beak was way overgrown. His body will be sent to the Ministry of the Environment for testing to find out exactly what happened to him and to assess if the beak problem is something related to what killed him, or if it is genetic in nature.
As for other methods of rodent control there are several. The idea of using raptors, especially Barn Owls and hawks such as Peregrines and Red Tails, has been very successfull at some of the berry farms in this area as well as at the airports (like BOP said). We currently have 7 Barn Owls that are banded and ready to go plus about 10 more that will soon be ready. All we need is a good home for them - preferrably a farm with at least 1 barn that has either a nesting box or a platform for the birds to roost in. I guarantee if there is a nesting family of Barn Owls the farmer will not have any rodent problems - when they have babies in the nest they can kill from 50 to 100 mice every day! If anyone knows of a farmer anywhere even remotely close to OWL who would like an all-natural form of rodent control please have them give us a call.
The other way to control the pests is to use the old fashioned snap traps. That's what we use at OWL. Because we have farms all around us we also have a rat problem. They are attracted to the property because of the left-overs that are in the cages. It's only because our birds are so well fed that the rats can come right into the cages and steal whatever they can find. Every once in a while there will be a dead rat inside one of the cages. It is immediately removed because we don't know if the bird killed it or if it died of poisoning and obviously we don't want the bird eating it. Sadly though the farmers don't like using the snap traps because it means that they would have to take responsibility of checking the traps regularly and then disposing of any bodies that may get caught. With poison they can simply set it and forget it.
As for OWL it was a routine day although quite busy. I was doing my favourite section - Front Education - so that means I was changing pools for most of the morning and by lunch I was quite dirty. Maybe I should start bringing a change of clothing with me .
I saw only 1 wild eagle on my way in this morning. They must have all left early for the Sockeye salmon run on the Fraser River. Once Fall rolls around and the leaves drop I am going to take a picture of what I call the "eagle tree". It is a large tree (don't know what kind) on the road near the OWL property that serves as the local hang-out for probably 20 or more eagles. Right now, even if the eagles are there, they are very difficult to see so I'll wait for when the tree is naked. It's quite spectacular looking - the number of eagles, not the naked tree .

aww phooey well I was hoping for the RT, that's very odd about the beak. I've never read that before and I'd be very interested in learning what the believed cause is when its known. So you're saying Rob has seen a few birds with this overgrown beak...huh. Is their beak made of carotin or however you spell that, same thing as finger nails?

Gee too bad you're not located here it's nothing but farms and I could find you one in a heartbeat. I hope somebody comes up with a few for you guys. Thanks for that rodent control info Jewill and I can see with how hard farmers work why they wouldn't want something else to do but I'm sure they'd love to have owls if they knew.

I'm so glad you were doing the part you love today and the shot of the tree sounds like a great idea. Thanks so much for your report

being the hound I am for learning I found this and while it talks mostly of chickadees I suspect there's a connection wherein a beak is a beak right?....

ABSTRACT.—The sudden appearance of a large cluster of animals with gross abnormalities may signal a significant change in an ecosystem. Here we describe an unusual concentration of beak deformities that appear to have arisen rapidly within Alaska and now extend southward along the Pacific Coast. In Alaska we have documented 2,160 Black-capped Chickadees (Poecile atricapillus) and 435 individuals of 29 other species of birds, primarily during the last decade, with grossly overgrown and often crossed beaks. The annual prevalence of beak abnormalities among adult chickadees in south-central Alaska varied from 3.6–9.7% and averaged 6.5% ± 0.5% between 1999 and 2008. Only 0.05% ± 0.05% of nestlings and 0.3% ± 0.2% of juveniles <6 months old had abnormal beaks, suggesting that this is either a latent developmental or an acquired condition. We documented 80 cases in which a chickadee captured with an apparently normal beak was subsequently recaptured with a beak abnormality and 8 cases in which a beak deformity was no longer detectable upon recapture. Necropsy and histopathology of a sample of affected chickadees provided no conclusive evidence of the etiology of this condition. Deformities appear to affect primarily the keratin layer of the beak and may result from abnormally rapid growth of the rhamphotheca. Some affected birds also exhibited lesions in other keratinized tissues of the skin, legs, feet, claws, and feathers, which may represent a systemic disorder or secondary conditions. Additional studies are currently underway to determine diagnostic signs and the underlying cause of this avian keratin disorder.

source: http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/abs/10.1 ... 2010.10111

Oh, I'm sorry about the RTH but the news is not unexpected.

It sounds like having owls in your barn is the way to go for rodent control.

Thanks for the info on the beak overgrowth, Lori. Buddy the bald eagle from Norfolk, Virginia has a beak that overgrows and crosses but that was due to avian pox.

You're welcome BOP and wow about Buddy! so do they take him in and file the beak, what happens? I suspect tearing off bites from prey could be a tricky thing when the beak isn't lined up

Buddy is a non-releasable eagle because of his beak; it has to be dremmeled about every 6 weeks! Otherwise he would not be able to eat. The avian pox lesion on his beak (which he had as a chick) damaged the growth plate.
http://www.wildlifecenter.org/wp/nbge-medical-updates/

Quote by: birdofprey

Buddy is a non-releasable eagle because of his beak; it has to be dremmeled about every 6 weeks! Otherwise he would not be able to eat. The avian pox lesion on his beak (which he had as a chick) damaged the growth plate.
http://www.wildlifecenter.org/wp/nbge-medical-updates/

Lori...be sure to read about Buddy..it's a great story that started sadly! We N.E.S.T.I.-s love this bird a lot!!