Fish and Wildlife Department biologists help to rebuild declining Eastern Washington hawk population

One by one, four fluffy white ferruginous hawk chicks emerged from eggs in a nest near Touchet at the start of this month, their hatchings documented by a trail camera.

Biologists with the Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife have been watching their parents since 2016 when the pair of ferruginous hawks nested in a lone locust tree in the middle of plowed fields.

They were not successful in having chicks that year, and state biologists don’t think they tried to nest again for a few years.

It wasn’t until 2020 after a nest platform mounted on a 15-foot pole was installed in the Touchet area of Walla Walla County, that the two birds began to show their parenting skills.

New nest platforms are showing promise in rebuilding the Mid-Columbia’s population of endangered ferruginous hawks.

Each year since this pair have returned to the same platform and now have their sixth successful hatch to raise.

The platform is one of dozens installed with mitigation funds from the Washington state Department of Transportation as it has realigned Highway 12 in Walla Walla County through ferruginous hawk territory.

In 2019, almost 30 were installed in Benton, Franklin and Walla Walla counties and 22 more were just added in Walla Walla and Columbia counties, said Mark Vekasy, a Fish and Wildlife biologist.

Walla Walla and Columbia counties now have 18 nests occupied by ferruginous hawks, Vekasy said.

“We’re very pleased,” he said.

Biologists are hoping that ferruginous hawks will raise chicks on about 70% of the platforms, with an average of three chicks per nest.

Significant decline in nests

Ferruginous hawks were once plentiful in Washington state, according to reports by biologists in 1926 and 1931.

They reported that a large number of old nests in the area around Kiona in Benton County and wrote that they were “not at all rare” in shrub steppe habitat near the Columbia and Yakima rivers.

When the first statewide study was done in the mid 1970s, the number of pairs was estimated at just 20, and two followup studies by different biologists in the next decade estimated 26 and 40 pairs in Washington.

But between the mid 1970s and 2016, there was a significant decline in nests and new chicks, and they were found in a smaller area, according to the latest status review of the species compiled by the state in 2021.

The Department of Fish and Wildlife says the current number of hawks in Washington is unknown, “but likely is very small.”

Benton and Franklin counties, with fast-growing populations, have traditionally been their core breeding range, with significant numbers also found in surrounding counties, including Walla Walla.

Habitat threats

Ferruginous hawks are listed as endangered in Washington as strub steppe and grasslands have been overtaken by farming and development.

Illegal shooting, electrocution from power lines and collisions with wind turbines also have cut their numbers.

Five ferruginous hawks are known to have died from turbine strikes along the Columbia River in Oregon and Washington between 2003 and 2012, based on the limited data collected on the first two years of information after construction of wind turbines, according to a Fish and Wildlife report.

Traditionally ferruginous hawks have found nest sites in rock outcrops and isolated trees, but small cliffsides have fallen and old homestead trees have been lost, according to the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.

Historically, ferruginous hawks would even nest on the ground, but in most areas these site are no longer safe from predators that can easily find nesting birds in what is now limited foraging habitat, according to the agency.

They are a relatively large hawk with broad wings, a large head, robust chest and feathered legs, according to the Department of Fish and Wildlife. They average 23 inches in length and a wingspan of 56 inches, with females noticeably larger.

Nesting platform success

The new nest platforms appear to have increased nesting in areas where there were no suitable nesting sites or areas that were marginal because of extensive agricultural operations in the area.

“These platforms have been a benefit in that they provide the hawks a safe and suitable place to nest away from ground predators and human disturbance,” Vekasy said.

They also have given biologists a new eye on the lives of ferruginous hawks.

“This allows biologists a look into the life of a raptor that we wouldn’t get otherwise,” Vekasy said in a blog post. “You can only gather so much information from watching a bird from the ground.”

Tagging the birds is as easy as climbing step ladder near a nesting pole when the parents are away.

The trail cameras used at active nest platforms have confirmed what biologists suspected about what ferruginous hawks in the Mid-Columbia are eating.

Traditionally, ferruginous hawks in Washington state have relied on jack rabbits and ground squirrels, which have become scarce, according to the latest state hawk review.

But biologists have used the trail cam at the nest platform near Touchet to watch the male bring mostly pocket gophers to the female as she incubated the eggs.

Now they have pocket gophers, mostly brought in by the male, lined up around the nest. They and a few deer mice are more than the female can feed the chicks.

She pulls of small pieces of the prey and the chicks take the food from their bill. The most aggressive chicks will eat first, but there is plenty of food available now to help all four chicks thrive.

One of the chicks at the Touchet area nest may eventually get one of the few donated radio transmitters, each weighing a little over an ounce, that state biologists are using to track a few ferruginous hawks each year.

Tracking ferruginous hawks

The transmitters are providing new information on the birds’ migration.

One female that biologists tracked last year remained west of Walla Walla for about a month before flying 478 miles across the Canadian border where Richardson ground squirrels are available in the southern provinces in late summer.

In September, she flew south for the winter, but didn’t head to California as is typical for the hawks. Instead, she traveled almost 1,200 miles to to Texas and then turned around and flew 360 miles to the sandhills of Nebraska.

Through luck or by following more experienced hawks to traditional prey sights she found prairie dog towns and spent the winter in eastern Colorado.

This year for the first time the platform by Touchet with the four new chicks has a cellular trail cam that allows biologists to periodically delete photos to make room for more on the data card, which should allow photos to be collected through the entire nesting period rather than just a few weeks.

As soon as early June the chicks should be ready to leave the nest and learn to hunt.

Fish and Wildlife plans to post more pictures as they grow and fledge on its Facebook page or wdfw.medium.com.