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Re: Northern Harrier Eats Crow

Austin
	Your observations of the crows and harrier is interesting, and I
think it is worthy of a small note in a journal such as Southwestern
Naturalist or Prairie Naturalist.  There are alot of ornithologists who
would find this information usefull. I think the most interesting part
about it is that the it seems to me that the crows (most of them) knew
that the harier could outfly them and that their best defense would be to
stay on the on the ground.  I would even speculate that staying on the
ground next to the fence brace was evidence that they knew the fence brace
would prevent the harrier from effectively stooping on them if they were
on the ground next to it.
	A similar harrier story that I can share is that once I saw a
harrier try to flush juncos out of a patch of dried sunflower stalks by
hovering over the top of the plants and rattling the plants by hitting the
tops with her wings.  Occasionly a junco would try to escape and fly away
from the patch and the harrier would chase after it but each time
the junco quickly changed its mind and turned back into the patch.  The
harrier never got a bird and eventually gave up.  Another time I watched a
harrier pick a vole nest off the ground and lift it about ten feet in the
air at which time the vole bailed out and the harrier dropped the nest and
dived to the ground but I don't think it got it because when it flew off I
couldn't see that it was carrying anything.  I've always wondered if the
harrier saw the vole run into the nest or if it just knew that there was a
chance the nest might contain a vole.

Steve

On Wed, 30 Sep 1998, Austin Moseley wrote:

> This morning I saw something that caused 
> me to run off the road.
> 
> A group of crows was sitting in a field
> in a tight group and did not fly away after I 
> drove by. As I passed them, a Northern Harrier
> female dive bombed them, but they refused to 
> fly, instead they hopped out of her way. On her second
> graceful pass, they hopped some more. the third pass
> saw her scare one into the air, and as it flew away, 
> she turned upside down, flew underneath it, grabbed
> it, pulled out black feathers, then dropped it on
> the ground, whereupon it hopped quickly back to its
> buddies. The fourth pass saw the whole flock take
> to the air, whereupon she grabbed another and 
> did the same trick and threw it on the ground. The
> crows landed on a fence brace, saw her flying to them, 
> and as a group, they jumped to the ground around
> the posts. She flew away. 
> 
> A most amazing thing. Crows are very tough birds
> and she was not much bigger than them. She could
> clearly outfly them, though. 
> 
> She has hung around for over a year now and I saw 
> a male during last winter. I have also found duck
> carcasses in our fields where I have seen them 
> hunting. 
> 
> I had thought harriers would only eat rodents,
> but after today - ?
> 
> -Austin
> 
> -- 
> Austin Moseley, Texas Bison Co, Caddo Mills, TX  903.527.2325
> Vice-President, Northern Region, Texas Bison Association
> Amoseley@csac.com 800.225.6204x245
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