Raptor families thrive

On June 19, Saratoga local and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) employee Mary Read to survey raptor nests. Raptors, or birds of prey including eagles, hawks, and falcons, are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. As such, the BLM has responsibilities to make sure the wildlife are safe and taken care of, that they have homes to return to when they come back from the south to nest.

The surveys are fairly uncomplicated but designed around the nature of the birds. Basically, surveyors look at the nest location on a map for a specific type of eagle, hawk or falcon. At these particular locations west of Rawlins, the nests belonged to Ferruginous Hawks, Golden Eagles and Prairie Falcons. Read would check if there were any adult raptors in the air or hatched babies in the nest. A nest with babies and watching adults is an active nest, and any nest without is inactive. Like the homes of humans, raptor nests reflect the birds that made them. Smaller, less built up nests usually reflect a younger mother while an excellent, deep nest shows an older, more experienced raptor.

Read explained that it’s important to respect and record nests, even ones that are inactive or in dilapidated condition. Studies have shown that raptors often return back to a nest location eight or nine years later, even if all that remains are sticks.

The area she surveyed, called the “Gas Patch” by some, is a mixture of BLM and private land. The land is rich in natural gas, but the employees at the BLM enact strict sanctions on the drilling companies to protect the wildlife that call the area home. After many years, the animals have acclimated to the change in their habitat. Each type of raptor requires different rules about when drilling is allowed and how far it must be from a known nest.

Raptors are known to nest on drilling rigs. When that happens, the company is required to notify officials about the nest and they are forbidden to disturb it. The BLM erects an artificial nesting structure near the rig for the next year. These artificial structures held most of the active nests that Read saw while out on the field, but the jury is still out on whether or not the artificial nests are better than natural nests.

To survey the nests, she tried to get as close as she could to them to count the babies with binoculars. Before too long, the adult raptors (both mom and dad stay with the nests) would come into the sky, the mother squawking at her to keep away from the babies. This is a good sign—while it’s unlikely that a nest is left unattended, it’s always a relief to know that the adults are close by.

After as many nests have been surveyed as possible, records are entered into the database for the next time the birds come back for summer, beginning in February and March. These surveys continue year after year throughout the spring and summer for thousands of nests. Days spent surveying nests are typical to Read and other BLM employees due to the importance of the task, and they hope to get as many completed as possible before the birds fledge and leave the nests.