JILL MORROW AND LANCE MORROW
P. O. Box 430, Jeffrey City, Wyoming 82310
E-mail: jmorrow@trib.com
Photos and Text are copyrights of the Morrows
A Short History:
Lance began working with Harris' hawks (Parabuteo unicinctus)
in the early 1970s in south Texas. Sometime after that, Lance
was introduced to Fran and Fred Hammerstrom who were also working
with Harrris' hawks. (Before this period of time the Hammerstroms
had enjoyed working with northern raptors, especially the owls
that were trappable during daytime like the snowy owl (Nyctea
scandiaca) and Northern Hawk Owl (Surnia ulula). During one cold
winter Fred was hurt by frostbite. After Fred was permenantly
damaged by the frostbite, the Hammerstroms started working on
southern raptors during the cold Wisconsin winter months.)
Lance was banding Harris hawks during the 1970s while the Hammerstroms
banded from the 1970s up to as late as the late 1980s or early
1990s. In the mid-1980s Lance, Jim Hill and Eddie Perez banded
Harris hawks for a short period.
Three years ago Lance hurt his big toes with frostbite in Wyoming
during a minus 35 degree night which prompted us to start leaving
the dreaded Wyoming winters with the hope of recapturing some
of the many Harris' that had been previously banded in south
Texas. During these last three years we have captured and banded
just under 200 Harris hawks in our quest to find any of the previously
banded Harris hawks. To date we have not succeeded in our recapture
attempts.
Harris Hawks are interesting:
Of all the raptors that we have worked with, Harris' hawks are
- by far - the most interesting. Other hawks are mostly solitary
beings, especially when hunting. Harris hawks, on the other hand,
are extremely social and can commonly be seen roosting together
and hunting together in a cooperative manner. Most raptors with
a full crop, unless they have just eaten and have not yet begun
digesting the food, are all but impossible to catch using a baited
trap. Harris hawks, on the other hand will hunt with a full crop
and most definately help other Harris' hawks catch prey even
though they themselves are not hungry.
|
Note the immature feathers in the wing. |
Harris hawks, unlike other raptors, get caught on our B.C.s out
of curiosity. The only other birds that we have seen exhibit
this type of curiosity have been corvids.
As a child you might have read the books or seen Walt Disney's
cartoon version of the tales of Brer Rabbit as he was pursued
by ol' Brer Fox and Brer Bear (we are not sure how to spell characters
names as told by Uncle Remus since we are not anywhere near our
childhood reference libraries). In one of the many tales Brer
Fox and Brer Bear contrived to capture Brer Rabbit by utilizing
a dummy made of tar which Brer Fox and Brer Bear placed on a
log along the trail that Brer Rabbit was accustomed to using.
Brer Fox and Brer Bear then waited in the bushes for Brer Rabbit
to undo himself. Sur' enuf ol Brer Rabbit came along and, in
passing the tar baby, said something like, "Good morning",
to which the tar baby said nothing. After repeating the greeting
a few more times, one thing led to another and Brer Rabbit ended
up socking the tar baby in the face and with an additional few
well-placed roundhouse kicks Brer Rabbit was totally stuck to
the tar baby. And ol Brer Fox and Brer Bear were easily able
to get their hands on the sly Brer Rabbit... Well, Harris hawks
are much like that Brer Rabbit. They have a collective intelligence
but, with the introduction of the tar baby, or in this case a
bunch of pigeons scattered around in B.C.s, the Harris' hawks
curiosity just plain gets the best of them.
How to road trap Harris Hawks:
As the Hammerstroms used to say, Texas is blessed with wonderful
roads for hawk trapping. Even in the middle of nowhere, the roads
are well paved and then there is an apron on either side of the
road that is (usually) mowed. These grassy apron areas, which
can be up to 50' wide on each side, are great for driving onto
for the depositing of multiple B.C.s. Except for this year (and
we'll get back to that another time), it is not uncommon to see
4 Harris hawks sitting on one utility pole and then another 3
on the next and then another 2 on the pole after that. When you
find this situation, look for a place to dump traps where as
many Harris hawks as possible might be able to see them. Then
drive to that location and start dropping traps from the car
window. We dump out up to 5 traps at one location. As soon as
the last trap is dropped, drive away as nonchalantly as possible
and hope that none of the hawks spooks and flies away. If one
flies away, it is a good bet the rest will follow in single file.
Assuming all went well and the hawks stayed put, we back off
a few hundred yards, pull the car off the road, cut the engine
and watch the activity with binoculars. If one or more of the
Harris hawks is hungry the action will follow almost immediately.
It is pretty safe to say if one goes, they all go. Even if Harris
hawks way out in the brush see Harris hawks coming to our traps,
they will fly great distances to join in. It is quite common
to see a single Harris hawk to which we will drop 3 traps. When
this single Harris hawk starts to come to our traps, we are sometimes
shocked to see other Harris coming from God knows where to help
out the Harris that first saw our bait.
 |
Now comes the tar baby... If you drop traps to 3 or more Harris
hawks and they are not hungry (you can see with binoculars bulging
crops or they show no interest whatsoever in your baited traps)
- just wait. We usually wait up to 45 minutes. At some point,
one of the hawks just can't take it any longer and flies over
to a fence post next to the B.C.s just to take a look. If one
goes, they usually all end up going. So then you have a line
of B.C.s on the ground and a line of Harris hawks on the fence
looking down on them. At this point you have caught them, it
is just a matter of time. After a few minutes, one of them has
to land on the ground next to a B.C. to get a closer look. If
one goes to get a better look, more than likely they all go down
to get a closer look. A little while later one of them has to
throw a foot at a trap and shortly after they have to jump on
top of it. If one hawk does this, they all do it.
 (the hawk flipped it over after being noosed). |
Handling more than one Harris hawk at a time:
On several occasions we have 3, 4 or 5 Harris hawks caught on
one set. Handling this many birds used to be a problem until
we got organized and got some cans. To hold trapped hawks for
processing we taped together two tall juice cans about 4"
in diameter for males and two 3-liter soda bottles for female
Harris hawks. This is a wonderful and safe way to hold hawks.
Of course we poked holes in the head ends of the cans for air
and covered the jagged metal/plastic edges with duct tape to
avoid injury to the birds. It takes just seconds to can a trapped
bird and this allows you to get the next bird off the B.C. before
he or she hops or struggles hard enough to get the nooses off
the feet or toes.
 waiting to be banded and released. |
On most trapping trips our vehicle has 6 large pigeon B.C.s,
1 large flat pan B.C., 3 kestrel traps, 1 merlin B.C., and one
Cooper's B.C. - plus crates with pigeons, sparrows, mice and
rats. Space has always been in short supply and hawk holding
cans would have been a luxury. Before we were able to make room
for cans, as quickly as we could get a Harris free from the B.C.,
we would take it to the car and stuff it in the sleeve of a shirt
or a coat and quickly go free the next bird from the nooses.
Cans are better - if you have the space (and we have learned
that you should make the space).
 |
Harris Hawks after banding and release:
Like we said, Harris hawks are interesting raptors. When multiple
Harris hawks are trapped at one time and then banded and released,
usually the first Harris to be released flies and lands on the
nearest utility pole. A lot of the time the pole is directly
overhead. That Harris stands there, sometimes rousing, sometimes
preening and other times playing with the new band. An then at
other times, the hawk stands over the top of us and screams at
us defiantly. When the next Harris is banded and released, it
generally joins the first one on the pole. And the same with
the third. For some reason a freshly trapped and released Harris
hawk is in no hurry to leave the area.
 First Harris on pole, second is flying up to pole and third hawk is in the can waiting for it's band. |
Some are hard, some are impossible:
Last week we observed a Harris hawk sitting on a utility pole
with cars driving by. Before we could swing the car around to
drop a trap, a person started walking up the side of the road.
We were upset, thinking this person would scare away the Harris.
Moments later we were suprised to see the person walk directly
under the hunting Harris without scaring it away. After this
person had left the area we drove under the hawk to drop the
trap and it flew away in fright! To this individual hawk, traffic
is normal, walking Mexicans are normal but hawk trappers dropping
off traps are not.
Lance & Jill Morrow
at Bensten-Rio Grande State Park
in south Texas
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