Spring approaches, and with that, many species are on the move, including raptors and other birds. The other day I saw my first Red-winged Blackbird of the season at Spa State Park. On Sunday, I saw a hawk, I believe was a Red-tailed Hawk, hovering around one of the highway overpasses between Albany and Troy. The hawk was clearly after the pigeons roosting in the overpass eaves, as evident by the pigeons that were encircling the hawk.
And, last week looking out my office window at the Community Gardens office in South Troy, which is situated in a commercial-district right along the Hudson River, I saw another Red-tailed Hawk circling the nearby building - it too looking for pigeons.
I love to see these natural "wild" species in such deep urban settings. A colleague and I were just talking about the contrast these kinds of experiences or natural settings in urban areas present. Somehow, this gives me hope that if a Red-tailed Hawk can adapt to changes in 'habitat', so may we humans.
This weekend however, is the opportunity to see some hawks and other raptors in their natural environment. March 10 & 11th is the WINTER RAPTOR FEST in Ft Edward, NY. This always looks like an interesting, family-friendly event. The grasslands around Ft Edward in Washington County are designated by National Audubon Society as an Important Bird Area (IBA).
According to the Friends of the IBA website, "The Washington County Grasslands IBA is one of the few remaining large continuous grasslands in Eastern NY. It provides critical habitat for state endangered Short-eared Owls and “exceptional” grassland breeding and wintering habitat for many other grassland birds, including almost a dozen other threatened, at-risk and rapidly declining grassland bird species."
Protecting our open spaces helps maintain critical habitat for birds and other wildlife and plants, and is essential if we are to maintain regional biodiversity.
I hope some of you will get out and enjoy this event, and, let me know how it is.
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