Pennsylvania Game News - February 2021 - 62

our WRS routes.
According to Grove's Pennsylvania
Birds article, last year's mild winter
caused record numbers of both vulture
species to stay north, especially in southeastern Pennsylvania. Lancaster and
Chester counties accounted for 43 percent
of the vultures recorded in Pennsylvania
as part of the survey.
" Turkey and black vultures were found
in 39 and 29 counties, respectively, both
the highest ever for the Pennsylvania
WRS, " Grove wrote.
We couldn't count or even identify the
vultures high in the sky, heading for the
farm field, because a sudden snow squall
hit; Bruce could barely see the road.
Luckily, we soon drove out of the snow,
and spotted two mature bald eagles in a
distant field, perhaps the pair that had set
up housekeeping on game lands on the
other side of our mountain.
Grove later reported that, while 2020's
bald-eagle count of 509 was lower than
the record of 600 in 2018, the showing
could have been impacted by the mild
winter because there wasn't the typical
need for eagles to concentrate along rivers
for plentiful winter food.
On a powerline along another backroad, a lovely male American kestrel was
perched.
Again, the mild weather had led to a
higher-than-usual kestrel count for Pennsylvania, 623, the fourth-highest ever.
Franklin County was way out in front
with 50 kestrels.
Most years, we manage to find a
kestrel somewhere in the valley. Grove
wrote that the WRS has shown evidence
of kestrel decline, especially in eastern
Pennsylvania, and the survey has helped
establish the importance of ridge-and-val62

ley farmlands, where most kestrels winter.
The rest of our route was less exciting, but we did manage to find four more
mature red-tailed hawks tree-sitting.
Statewide, the WRS counted 3,242 redtailed hawks. Huntingdon County tallied
the most, 150.
With five species spotted, we had had
our best WRS ever. But we hadn't found
any northern harriers, another opencountry raptor.
The count of 104 harriers during the
mild 2020 winter was up from the lowestever count of 59 during 2019's cold and
snowy winter. Grasslands on reclaimed
strip-mines are favored by harriers, and
Clarion County grasslands, free of snowcover in 2020, provided a state-leading
12 sightings.
Rough-legged hawks also prefer
large, open fields with small-mammal
prey. Only 30 were recorded in 2020, the
lowest number per-hours-surveyed in
WRS history.
In contrast, the number of red-shouldered hawks continues to increase, setting
another record - 188 - in 2020. Most
were concentrated in southeastern and
southcentral counties, with 31 in Adams
County, although significant numbers also
were recorded in Butler, 18; Crawford, 14;
and Mercer. 13.
These forest-loving hawks traditionally
have bred and wintered in lowland deciduous or mixed forests interspersed with
wetlands, according to McWilliams and
Brauning in The Birds of Pennsylvania.
But the most dramatic increases recorded
by the WRS have been in the state's
heavily populated southeastern counties,
a sign these hawks might be becoming
somewhat suburbanized, Grove noted.
Other forest raptors were recorded
Pennsylvania Game News - February 2021

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