This story originally appeared in The Centre County Gazette.
The Klingsberg Aviary at Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center has welcomed two new feathered friends: rough-legged hawks named Alder and Willow. Both will serve as representatives for their species while painting a picture for visitors of Pennsylvania’s grasslands and conserving them.
“We’re trying to share that grasslands are here in Pennsylvania, they’re a natural part of Pennsylvania and that they have value — especially to our birds,” Joe Whitehead, aviary coordinator at Klingsberg Aviary at Shaver’s Creek, emphasized.
Willow and Alder found a new home with the Klingsberg Aviary after they were injured by a car in Wisconsin. While the pair have made a lot of progress in healing and rehabilitation, the two hawks are unable to be released back into the wild and will instead serve as ambassadors and educators under the care of the team at Shaver’s Creek.
Willow and Alder are noticeably different in appearance with the dark-brown Willow sporting a “dark morph” variety and Alder’s lighter head and underwings representing the “light morph” version of the rough-legged hawks. The coloring of the birds offers a glimpse into the species with Willow’s dark feathers traditionally only found in the eastern portion of North America while Alder’s lighter appearance can be found throughout much of the Northern Hemisphere.
“It’s really special that we have both morphs,” Paige Sutherland, director of wildlife programs at Shaver’s Creek remarked. “It’s also unique that they can live together, a lot of other hawks are more solitary. They sort of have that natural history element where they may be able to share fields because of the ample rodent populations or because of those family groups.”
Rough-legged hawks spend part of the year breeding in the Arctic before they travel to southern regions in the winter such as Canada and the northern United States, including Pennsylvania. In addition to teaching Shaver’s Creek’s visitors about grasslands, the pair of hawks assists Klingsberg Aviary in its four seasons of wildlife conservation goals, highlighting the winter.
“Oftentimes, we tend to focus a lot, especially in the bird world, on the spring and summer for songbirds, waterfowl and birds like that,” Whitehead explained. “Then in fall, we look into a lot of raptor migration and we’re trying to highlight that fourth season and that there are a lot of really cool birds that come here after November to March and April.”
Looking to educate the public on Pennsylvania’s threatened grassland spaces, the two hawks got their names from common grassland tree species, willow and alder trees, which the hawks often use branches from to weave their nests.
Grassland health frequently relies on birds of prey like rough-legged hawks due to their unique skills in hunting rodents which can arguably be more effective than rodenticide when it comes to keeping the population in check.
“This is a large hawk that feeds almost entirely on rodents, and they’re feeding mostly on smaller rodents that live in and around our homes,” Whitehead noted. “They’re a nice way of controlling those rodent populations. This bird, as well as so many other grassland birds, rely on the native rodents that tend to be out in those fields. So, if we’re able to provide good grassland habitat, we’re providing homes for not just the rodents, but the insects, reptiles and amphibians that are also living in those areas.”
Whitehead went on to explain that the rodents support a lot of the animals we appreciate, like raptors and foxes. So, while it’s beneficial to keep the rodent population balanced, getting rid of them entirely wouldn’t be sensible for grassland conservation.
“For the average homeowner, choosing not to use rodenticides can be better because poisoning rodents poisons all the other charismatic animals we love, and it doesn’t just stop at rodents,” Whitehead emphasized. “To protect rough-legged hawks, we need to rethink how we do pest management.”
Whitehead added that multiple studies have shown that grassland birds as a group are overall declining across North America. According to the North American Bird Conservation Initiative’s State of the Bird 2022 report, grassland birds have seen the largest decline in population of any terrestrial biome since 1970 likely due to habitat conversion, tree encroachment and pesticide use. According to another study from the international journal “Biological Conservation” in 2018, 52% of raptor species were seen to be declining specifically.
Local residents can actually play a part in helping professionals track the population of these raptors. The Winter Raptor Survey is a way for experts to collect information about the wintering raptors from individual enthusiasts and the rest of the community. The data becomes available to researchers, land management agencies and birding organizations for use while also serving as a “community science experiment.”
More information about the Winter Raptor Survey and how to get involved with it can be found online at hmana.org/winter-raptor-survey.
As an outreach initiative of Penn State University, the Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center looks to make connections between the area’s residents, the university and the natural world.
“With our native local Pennsylvania species of wildlife, we really focus on connecting people to native local Pennsylvania species of wildlife that can help promote conservation for their species and ecosystems,” Sutherland noted.
Guests can visit Willow and Alder at Shaver’s Creek’s Klingsberg Aviary and the rest of the environmental center from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily. Shaver’s Creek also has regular events such as the Meet the Creek program on Saturdays and Sundays in addition to other initiatives for individuals, families and groups.
“I think there’s something for everyone here at Shaver’s Creek. If they are here seeking unique and novel experiences related to nature, we have plenty of that,” Sutherland said. “They can connect here with the resident wildlife and become their community around them — like keeping track of them throughout the seasons.”
The Klingsberg Aviary is home to 11 other species of birds found in Pennsylvania including the sandhill crane, bald eagle, American crow, black vulture, peregrine falcon, barred owl, golden eagle, broad-winged hawk, American krestel, great horned owl and red-tailed hawk.
Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center is located at 3400 Discovery Road, Petersburg, and more information can be found online at shaverscreek.org.
