EPOW - Ecology Picture of the Week

What The Hawk Sees

Post-Forest Fire Conifer Forest
"B&B Fire," Willamette Pass, Cascade Mountains, Oregon

Explanation:  Picture yourself coarsing around for a place to land.  It is a hot summer day, and the winds are buffeting your flight.  You are looking for a key perch, high in the tree tops from where to scan the open ground for your next meal, perhaps a careless rabbit or a rat.

And, such luck!, here is an open conifer stand with all the features you need!  

This week's "planet" photo represents what the hawk (or falcon) would see when searching for such a perch, and how a forest fire can help open up what was a thicket to be more amenable to some birds of prey.  

It all goes together.  Fire is a natural part of forest development and -- human hazards aside -- can be beneficial to predator and prey alike.  Fires can stimulate the opening and germination of tree and shrub seeds, provide useable nutrients in the soil, open the forest canopy to sunlight, and stimulate growth of grasses and herbs that provide for many small forest mammals that, in turn, feed the hawk.  
  

Swainson's Hawk (Buteo swainsoni) taking off from
a tree-top perch.
  

Information:
    Lehmkuhl, J. F., M. Kennedy, E. D. Ford, P. H. Singleton, W. L. Gaines, and R. L. Lind. 2007. Seeing the forest for the fuel: Integrating ecological values and fuels management. Forest Ecology and Management 246:73-80.
    Menges, E. S., and C. V. Hawkes. 1998. Interactive effects of fire and microhabitat on plants of Florida scrub. Ecol. Applic. 8(4):935-946.