Raptor Fest 2021

Ferruginous hawk breeding ecology in the NCA with ariana dickson

live-streaming on friday, August 27th at 4:30pm MT

Although raptor exposure to rodenticides has been documented across many species on at least three continents, patterns, pathways and the sub-lethal effects of exposure are not well studied. This has created a substantial need to monitor the effects of rodenticides in free-living populations. Ariana’s research focused on assessing the level of rodenticides found in nestling ferruginous hawks in the NCA, as well as in Wyoming and Colorado. Ferruginous hawks are known to forage along the interface of agricultural and shrub-steppe/grassland habitats; additionally, species targeted by rodenticides compose a large proportion of ferruginous hawk diet, indicating vulnerability for rodenticide exposure. Ariana collected blood samples from nestling hawks, and installed nest cameras on several nesting platforms in the NCA as a way to monitor how nesting behavior might be affected by the level of rodenticide exposure. Rodenticides were not detected in blood samples of nesting hawks in the NCA. However, the video footage collected over two breeding seasons has given researchers valuable insight into several important aspects of ferruginous hawk nesting ecology in the NCA, including: nesting phenology/timing, prey species selection, prey delivery rates, reproductive success and productivity, as well as potential causes of nest failure. Ariana will share short clips of the video footage she collected as part of her Master’s thesis project with the Raptor Research Center at Boise State University.