Natural History Journal

Most of the time, I am prompted to write about birds and other wildlife that I have encountered recently while out and about exploring.  Today, I am writing about a bird precisely because I haven't seen it recently, or at all this entire 2023-24 fall-winter season. Rough-legged Hawks are special birds in California's Great Central Valley, and certainly one of my favorite raptors.  For one, they are simply gorgeous hawks.  But they're more than a pretty face: They are incredible migrants and amazingly hardy, nesting on cliffs and rocky outcroppings in remote tundra, boreal forest and alpine regions of the Arctic, where they spend the short summer breeding season feeding on lemmings and voles.     But every winter, the world's entire breeding population of Rough-legged Hawks leaves the Arctic behind to migrate south, where they spend the colder months feeding on the rodents of open habitats across much of the U.S., including prairies, fields, shrublands and ...

Winter is the season for raptors in California's Great Central Valley, as a number of species move south in latitude and down slope from the Sierra Nevada mountains to spend the coldest months in the Valley's mild climate.  On a really good day birding across the Valley's wetland and grassland habitats, it is possible to encounter an astounding FIFTEEN species of diurnal raptors (also known as birds of prey.)  And that's not even including at least an additional FIVE species of nocturnal raptors: the owls! The Valley's diverse mosaic of habitats, which includes wetland, grassland, farmland, oak woodland, riparian forests, and even suburban neighborhoods provides an abundance of specialized niches and prey to support this wide array of species.   Around open bodies of water, look for Osprey and Bald Eagles .   On open grasslands, keep an eye on the sky for Golden Eagles , Prairie Falcons , Rough-legged Hawks and Ferruginous Hawks .   While also...