Winter’s Hawk: Red-tails on the Southern Plains by Jim Lish

Abstract

Reviewed by: Winter’s Hawk: Red-tails on the Southern Plains by Jim Lish James A. Hewlett Winter’s Hawk: Red-tails on the Southern Plains. By Jim Lish. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2015. xi + 163 pp. Illustrations, map, references, index. $24.95 paper. Approximately 15 miles northwest of Rochester, New York, the southern shore of Lake Ontario bends slightly to the southeast near Braddock Bay before continuing its eastward expanse toward Sodus Point. This innocuous feature on the map is unlikely to give anyone pause for thought, but for a red-tail hawk traversing the shoreline, a pause is exactly what this geographical twist demands. Carried by the southwest winds that develop during the warming days of early summer, thousands [End Page 146] of juvenile red-tailed hawks are pushed to the northeast from their Ohio Valley nesting grounds and then funneled into Braddock Bay as the cold Lake Ontario waters shut down the thermals that the hawks rely on for their migration. For naturalists and researchers, Braddock Bay’s geographical location makes it one of the prime locations in North America to observe the mass migration of a variety of raptor species. As a biologist studying red-tailed hawks, I have had the great fortune of having access to the natural treasure that exists along the shores of Lake Ontario. While my tenure observing and studying this raptor has spanned the last 10 years, this pales in comparison to the more than 50 years that Jim Lish has spent observing red-tails on the tallgrass prairies of Oklahoma. Like western New York, the Southern Plains are a unique geographical destination for a mass migration of red-tails moving along a flyway that stretches from Alaska and Canada, south along the Great Plains, and into Mexico. Every winter, red-tail hawks migrate south, often pushed along Arctic fronts sweeping out of Canada, to winter in the Southern Plains. Lish’s observations, focused primarily in his home state of Oklahoma, include some of the highest densities of wintering red-tailed hawks ever reported. Observers traveling through portions of western Oklahoma during peak months may find wintering red-tails in densities of one per mile. Lish combines basic biology with classic natural history and nature writing to engage the reader in a story that is both entertaining and educational. His passion for Buteo, and the depth of experience he has gained through years of observation and study, drive a narrative that will appeal to a broad audience. Scholars of natural history will at times recognize a style similar to the works of Aldo Leopold, and a structure resembling many classic 19th-century works. The hand-drawn color plates of a classic natural history work have been replaced here by over 180 color photographs that capture the characteristics and behavior of North America’s most abundant hawk species. While some of the most engaging photographs include hawks posing on a variety of perch substrates, Lish clearly understands the need to utilize underside views of the raptors in flight—a view most commonly experienced in the field and used to identify birds of prey. A two-page, scaled, side-by-side comparison of 24 adult and juvenile red-tailed hawks of various races is a highlight of the text, and is at the core of a lengthy discussion of the variation that exists within Oklahoma’s wintering population. Winter’s Hawk is a must-read for anyone interested in red-tailed hawks, but it will appeal to all readers with an interest in ornithology, nature photography, and natural history. James A. Hewlett Department of Science and Technology Finger Lakes Community College Canandaigua, New York Copyright © 2016 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln