{"id":61001,"date":"2019-10-25T06:00:37","date_gmt":"2019-10-25T12:00:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=61001"},"modified":"2024-08-21T05:55:03","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T10:55:03","slug":"reasons-why-we-may-be-seeing-fewer-northern-harriers-at-farmington-bay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2019\/10\/25\/reasons-why-we-may-be-seeing-fewer-northern-harriers-at-farmington-bay\/","title":{"rendered":"Reasons Why We May Be Seeing Fewer Northern Harriers At Farmington Bay"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NorthernNorthern Harrier hovering while on the hunt – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2500, ISO 320, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light, not baited<\/span><\/p>\n

It was terrific to see a few Northern Harriers up and flying yesterday morning over the marshes at Farmington Bay WMA<\/span><\/a>. I don’t see nearly as many harriers over the marshes at Farmington Bay as I used to five to ten years ago but the marshes have changed some since I moved to northern Utah. There are now fewer phrags, an invasive grass, than there used to be because of intensive phragmites mitigation at the WMA.<\/p>\n

Fewer phrags may mean fewer prey animals are in the areas that I can get to when I am photographing birds at Farmington Bay. When it comes to Northern Harriers hunting for prey I’ve read that this species tend to under use heavily grazed fields and since cattle are being used to help mitigate the phrags that may be why we are seeing fewer harriers close to the roads at the WMA than we used to.<\/p>\n

I’ve wondered about the impact the cattle trampling the ground in the marshes have on nesting success for ground nesting birds such as Northern Harriers, Short-eared Owls, and other species that nest on the ground. I’ve done a bit of research and found this on Birds of North America (BNA):<\/p>\n

“In agricultural areas, nests are destroyed by livestock (trampling), haying, and other agricultural practice.”<\/p>\n

Cattle have also been used to combat invasive phragmites at Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge and sadly I see fewer harriers there now than I used to as well.<\/p>\n

I want to clarify that I am not saying that phragmites mitigation is a “bad” thing, I’m just explaining why we may be seeing fewer Northern Harriers now than we used to. Phragmites are invasive and they do need to be controlled.<\/p>\n

Additionally climate change may already be impacting these raptors and their prey. Loss of prey species=fewer predatory birds.<\/p>\n

Two years ago today I photographed this young male Northern Harrier as it hovered over the marsh while hunting for prey. Northern Harriers use their eyes and their ears to locate prey, this harrier may have titled its head in order to hear the prey it was attempting to locate better.<\/p>\n

I missed out on a few shots of the Northern Harriers I saw yesterday and that disappointed me, they might have been my first decent images of this species this fall but I didn’t start firing the shutter until the engine was off and by that time the harrier had turned its head away from me.<\/p>\n

Bird photography can be frustrating but I still love what I do despite the problems that can and quite often do get in the way.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/span><\/a> to see more of my Northern Harrier photos plus facts and information about this species.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don’t see nearly as many harriers over the marshes at Farmington Bay as I used to five to ten years ago but the marshes have changed some since I moved to northern Utah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":132866,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,1022,697,348,26],"tags":[765,2783,3164,4169,2386,4174,3970,4067,7875,4062,4094,767,7385,7874,4006,4059,6428,4106,153,4193],"class_list":["post-61001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avian","category-davis-county-utah","category-farmington-bay-wma","category-northern-harriers","category-utah","tag-circus-hudsonius","tag-harrier","tag-harriers","tag-hawks","tag-hawks-of-utah","tag-hovering-2","tag-hunting","tag-immature","tag-loss-of-habitat","tag-male","tag-marsh","tag-marsh-hawk","tag-mitigation","tag-nesting-success","tag-northern-harrier","tag-phragmites","tag-phrags","tag-prey","tag-raptors","tag-young"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/northern-harrier-hovering-mia-mcpherson-3217.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p11Mom-fRT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13087,"url":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2014\/01\/10\/a-resting-northern-harrier\/","url_meta":{"origin":61001,"position":0},"title":"Resting Northern Harrier","author":"Mia McPherson","date":"January 10, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Farmington Bay Waterfowl Area used to be my \"go to\" place for photographing Northern Harriers but this winter they are hard to find.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Perched Northern Harrier at Farmington Bay in northern Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/northern-harrier-perched-mia-mcpherson-0099.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/northern-harrier-perched-mia-mcpherson-0099.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/northern-harrier-perched-mia-mcpherson-0099.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 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harassing a Ring-necked Pheasant hen out on the marshes at Farmington Bay.","rel":"","context":"In "Birds"","block_context":{"text":"Birds","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/category\/avian\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Immature Northern Harrier female hovering over a Ring-necked Pheasant hen, Farmington Bay WMA, Davis County, Utah","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/northern-harrier-hen-pheasant-mia-mcpherson-6911.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/northern-harrier-hen-pheasant-mia-mcpherson-6911.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/northern-harrier-hen-pheasant-mia-mcpherson-6911.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, 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