[Maine-birds] Humans and rare hawks

Hi all - as one of the lucky dozens who got to spend a few minutes with this rare hawk today, I watched a bit of the early morning dynamics between bird, birders, and the daily sunrise urban hubbub. A few anecdotes:

• The sunrise spotters were very few during my time at Deering Oaks (~6:50 - 7:10). As two photographers approached to an arguably respectful distance, the bird chose to fly from its first perch to a perch directly overhead of those same photographers. Thus, they were "stuck" in a posture that looked extremely - yet unintentionally - intrusive. They stayed put and the bird flew again.
• While the bird took its third perch in the span of a few minutes, kids were walking across the park towards their day in school, innocently kicking a soccer ball and pretty oblivious to the goings on. Yippy dogs were yipping nearby. The hawk took it all in, alertly swiveling its head.
• As some birders inched their way closer, and still closer, to the hawk on its third perch in order to get incrementally better photos, I saw the most troubling, subtle, and ambiguous example of the birders' dilemma. There is no bright line here. You get closer and the bird remains on its perch. The birder with a camera next to you gets closer still, and the bird remains. (This feels very similar to the human - bison behavior interface in places like Yellowstone that sometimes leads to a goring). And because the bird may not provide timely feedback on our behavior, we assume that everything's fine, until it is not fine.

For what it's worth: find one spot, enjoy whatever view you get, be thankful, and then remove yourself from the cumulative impact created by our passionate community on the life of a teenage hawk just trying to make it through the winter alive.

Craig K

SW Harbor

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