Re: Swainson's Hawk Trouble in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/saskatchewan/story/2009/07/17/sask-mail-halted-hawk-attacks.html

Fierce raptor halts mail delivery in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan

Last Updated: Friday, July 17, 2009
This Swainson's hawk has been terrorizing letter carriers in Moose Jaw since late May. (CBC)Canada Post has temporarily suspended door-to-door mail delivery for a neighbourhood in Moose Jaw, Sask., because of threatening swoops from a protective bird of prey.

Letter carriers had recently become the target of a Swainson's hawk nesting in the area. The common prairie hawk, which can grow to 50 centimetres in length and weigh up to 1.1 kilograms, is known to be quite territorial when caring ....


http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Canada+Post+suspends+delivery+area+Moose+because+swooping+hawks/1797199/story.html

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The cure for a fallacious argument is a better argument, not the suppression of ideas.
-- Carl Sagan

You sure it wasn't in Cicely?

Unlike any other buteos in the western United States (e.g., red-tailed hawk, redshouldered hawk), Swainson’s hawks are highly gregarious (foraging for food and roosting overnight in groups), are largely insectivorous, and many migrate long distances. Their annual round-trip migration can range from North America to Argentina and cover approximately 12,500 miles. Studies of Swainson’s hawks that nest in the Central Valley of California, show that they generally migrate to Mexico and Central America, with a few going as far as northern South America. Most Swainson’s hawks from elsewhere in the U.S. West spend the northern hemisphere winter in South America. The primary winter range is on the pampas of Argentina. Small numbers are also reported irregularly during the winter in Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama, and Mexico. Small populations regularly winter in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta of central California and in southern Florida.

Birds typically return to nest sites in early March to April (later in more northern areas), immediately form pairs, and begin the nesting cycle.

The plumage coloration of Swainson’s hawks is polymorphic and is called light, dark, or rufous based on coloration of the under parts.

Swainson’s hawks breed regularly from southwestern Canada to northern Mexico. The western limit of their breeding distribution extends from eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, and northeastern California, through Nevada to northern and southeastern Arizona. The eastern limit of the breeding range extends to western Minnesota, eastern Nebraska, central Kansas, central Oklahoma, and central Texas. Apparently isolated outlier populations also occur in: the interior valleys of British Columbia, the Central Valley of California and west-central Missouri.