(upbeat music) Welcome to Naturally Wild.

My name is Steve Wildman Wilson.

I serve as your host here each week.

I want to thank you so much for watching Arkansas TV.

You know, I just love nature.

I mean, it's just amazes me to learn all about the different animals and their instincts.

I mean, how does a bird know when to go make a nest?

Or how does a doe deer know to clean up its newborn fawn every day so the coyotes can't smell it?

Or how do alligators have three eyelids so they can see underwater?

That stuff just amazes me.

Well, I'm about to be amazed again.

I want to welcome back in the studio Eric Maynard.

He was here with the snakes before and also brought Trent Powell from the Pine Bluff Nature Center.

Welcome, guys.

Glad to be here.

Thank you.

I think they're happy.

Everybody in the studio was happy that you didn't bring snakes.

They're all smiling a little more than the last time I was here.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And of course, you, you're the assistant chief of the education division.

In charge of the nature centers.

And, Trent, you work out of one specific nature center down in Pine Bluff.

Tell us about that.

Yes.

So I'm the manager of the Delta Rivers Nature Center.

I've been there for about 11.5 years now.

What all do you do down there?

Tell us a little bit about that nature center while you're here, though.

So our nature center is one of nine across the state.

And what we do is we are public facing facilities, people can come out and visit us.

They can see the animals and learn about nature here in Arkansas, learn about hunting and fishing and all the different things that you can do outdoors.

And you're located, if you want to go to Pine Bluff, tell us how to get there.

So come on down to Pine Bluff.

We are located in regional parks on the north side of Pine Bluff, right around downtown, but just come into regional parking.

You'll find us.

Open weekends operation, hours of operation.

We're open from Tuesday through Saturday from 8:30 to 4:30.

And I've been down there.

You got a neat nature trail.

When it gets a little bit cooler, it might be good.

Oh, yeah.

Talk about that nature trail.

So yeah, we have just just under two miles of trails.

But yeah, we have paved trails for those who need handicap accessible trails.

We also have some dirt trails so you can get out really way out in the wild and go along our bayous and get to see some really cool stuff.

Tell them how much it costs if they come down there and want to get in.

It cost absolutely nothing.

That's what I thought.

Come on down.

But it'll cost you to get out of there because you got a neat little gift shop there.

We really do.

We have a really neat gift store, so come on in.

Get some stuff.

Get some really cool logo items that help us in our foundation.

Well, is this one of the things they might see if they come down the great horned owl?

Yep.

So our our facility is pretty unique in that we have a really large bird of prey collection.

Some of our other facilities have some birds of prey, but our our collection is pretty large.

We have these guys, the smaller birds.

We also have some large, two large bald eagles.

Do you still have the alligator down there?

Yes, we sure do.

I remember that a lot.

Well, we're going to talk about birds of prey on this show.

Obviously we got a red tailed hawk and a great horned owl.

But you know, there's a lot of different types of hawks.

I've been doing research on this.

There's a ton of hawks and owls in Arkansas.

Roughly how many different types of hawks in Arkansas.

So hawks, probably about 9 to 10 different species.

You got to remember some migrate through the state.

Some are what we consider residents and live here just like you and I live here all year long.

So depending on what time of year, you'll see more species or fewer species, different species depending on the time of year and the weather and that kind of stuff.

Well, I don't want to talk about all of them, but I know there's some common ones.

As we drive down the road or out in the backyard, we see.

Let's talk about a few of those and show them.

Talk a little bit about the description, the differences.

A lot of them look alike to me.

And then we're going to talk about this one here.

I think one of the, the broad wing hawk.

So the broad wing hawk is a fairly common hawk.

It doesn't have a lot of distinguishing features.

I mean, most of the hawks you see are brown.

They may be tan or lighter colored, striped on the chest.

Most of them are brown on the back.

Broad wings do have shorter, kind of thicker wings than some.

It depends on the kinds of hawks we're talking about.

There's different groups of hawks.

Wow.

And, you know, we've talked before and it can get really confusing because there's hawks and there's falcons and there's eagles.

And then when you get into just hawks there's Buteo and Accipiters and some of those scientific names.

Don't break it all down.

Don't go there.

Yeah that's biology.

What about the Cooper's hawk?

Now I've heard I've heard of the Cooper's hawk.

So Cooper's hawk is a smaller hawk.

It likes to hunt other birds, found in wooded areas a lot of times.

And it gets confused with sharp-shinned hawks.

And sharp-shinned hawks look just like Cooper's hawks.

Except they're kind of a smaller version.

And if you ever see a hawk feeding at your bird feeder, not throwing the seeds, maybe trying to catch your songbirds, that's probably going to be a Cooper's hawk or a sharp-shinn I've heard rumors that they can even catch hummingbirds at times.

They can.

Yep.

Well, shame on them.

Yeah.

Everybody's got to eat.

That's true.

There is a food chain in it.

That's the Cooper's hawk.

This next one I've seen a lot when I'm sitting on my deer stand, I don't see any deer, but I see a lot of birds.

I'm becoming a bird watcher.

Is the kestrel hawk.

I guess it's sometime called the sparrowhawk.

So a kestrel is actually a falcon.

Really?

It's the second smallest falcon in the world and the smallest falcon in the United States.

But a lot of people do refer to it as a sparrowhawk because of its small size.

It's not much bigger than a sparrow.

And it will catch sparrows from time to time and eat them.

But it's actually a true falcon, just like a peregrine falcon.

And some of those things you hear.

Those peregrine falcons are fast.

They are.

I read where they can fly up to 200 miles an hour.

Yes.

In a, in a what we call a stoop or a dive.

So if they're flying up high and they're diving after their food, then they get into that.

200 miles an hour.

Well, we're going to talk now about the, probably one of the most common types of hawks in Arkansas, we all say, is the red tailed hawk.

Let's start out by letting folks know that these are not pets.

These are wild game.

Tell us a bit about these, why you have them for educational purposes.

So if you see birds in a nature center or a zoo or something like that, they have them either because they have some kind of injury or they can't be released.

That may be a broken bone or something like that.

It may be an eye injury.

It might be that somebody took them in, thinking they were doing the right thing when they were young and they tried to raise them.

And what happens is called imprinting.

And they don't learn to catch their own food.

They they expect handouts.

Yeah.

So if you see those animals in those kind of settings, those animals cannot be released into the wild.

They don't do very good.

The main thing is these are not pets.

I mean, these are for educational purposes.

Tell us about this red tailed hawk you have here.

So this is a red tail.

It's common here in Arkansas.

And it's one of those that depend on the time of year, you may see it more often than other times.

So we have what we call resident red tails, live here all year round.

But in the wintertime we have migrants that come through.

And it seems like depending on where you drive over in East Arkansas with me, you may see a red tailed hawk on every other telephone pole.

That's the ones I know.

When we used to drive to Memphis, we'd always count them because it seems like they're on every fence post and telephone pole.

What are they looking for?

So they're looking for whatever food.

They eat a lot of rodents.

So mice and rats, they also catch squirrels.

They'll catch rabbits occasionally, things like snakes and stuff.

Anything that's kind of the appropriate size.

They like to nest in wooded areas, but they like to hunt in open areas.

So where we've gone in and cleared out fields and that kind of stuff, we've made lots of good habitat for red tails because they've got a place to nest and they've got a place to hunt.

They will hunt for food while they're flying around.

But for the most part, I tell people they're kind of lazy, kind of like, I won't call deer hunters lazy, but if you go deer hunting, you go and you sit a lot of times, you know, and you wait for something to show up.

That's what they do.

So this red tail will sit up on that telephone pole, and it's using this really keen eye sight.

And it's looking for that mouse, that rat, that rabbit, whatever.

And if it spots it, then it'll fly down and catch its food.

And if it doesn't, after a while, a it'll go to the effort to fly down 2 or 3 telephone poles and sit again.

Yeah.

So like deer hunting.

Yeah.

Pretty much.

Change scenery.

Talk about the eyesight of these things.

How far can they see a mouse move or a rabbit move?

It's incredible.

So they've got really good eyesight.

They can see mice a hundred yards or so away, you know, just the slightest movement crossing the road or down in the grass and that kind of stuff.

And then once they see it and kind of lock on, then this bird is going to fly over and catch it, and it's going to use its strong feet and these sharp talons to reach out and grab its prey and hold on to it.

And that's where the name raptor comes from.

Raptor actually comes from a Latin word which means to seize or to grasp.

So they obviously don't have any hands, have to use their feet.

They got the claws.

So they've got really strong feet.

And a bird this size might have a grip, we're going to say up to 200, 250 pounds of pressure per square inch.

Depending on the size of the bird more than that.

So once it gets hold of its prey that prey is not getting away.

They've got some special stuff built into their legs and their tendons and stuff.

So if you grab hold of something to squeeze it really hard, keep the death grip on about 30s you're going to start to get tired.

Yeah.

And and then it's going to get away from you.

Sure.

Their feet kind of lock in.

So once they grab hold, there's some things in their tendons and stuff that kind of lock it in place, and then they don't have to put forth so much effort.

Now they do have that really good eyesight at a distance.

They they don't see very well up close.

So if you ever spot one on the ground, and it's got its food and it's sitting on top of it.

Sometimes you'll see it kind of back up and raise its head and look because it can't see.

It's farsighted.

It's farsighted.

There you go.

So it's trying to get as far away from it as can, and then.

See what he's eating.

When it gets ready to eat.

It bends over with its hooked beak and it bites hold and tears off pieces.

We always tell kids they can't use a knife and fork, don't have any hands.

It's got knives and fork, so they use their feet to hold on to it, and they're big to tear off pieces they can swallow.

It's got a pretty big wingspan.

What does he weigh?

So red tailed hawks will vary from a pound and a half, maybe up to 4 pounds depending on whether they're male or female and what part of the country they're from.

So with most birds of prey, those farther north weigh more than one down down south, and the females are generally 25 to 30% larger than the males.

Okay, now, unlike eagles, I know eagles, you can tell males and females, but size but also maturity.

How do you tell a male from a female here?

Just the size or is it coloration?

Just size.

So there's not any difference in coloration with red tailed hawks, the only thing that changes with their coloration over time is when they're young and we say they're immature, they're less than two years old.

Their tail will look like this.

So it's not red.

Oh.

It's got these bars or stripes on it.

And then from that first year to second year, they molt, they lose the feathers and grow in feathers.

And I'm going to rotate around here and let you see this is a full grown adult.

So he's got this rusty red colored tail.

It's not bright red.

You know.

It's not cherry red, rust.

Yeah.

It's a rusty tailed hawk instead of a red tailed hawk.

But let me tell you, when they're up there, I see them soaring a lot.

You know, they'll just circle around up there and that sun coming through it does show up pretty red.

And they're looking for something to eat, obviously.

That's I mean that's how they make their living.

And they will mate for life like lots of other birds prey.

Cool.

They raise 1 to 5 chicks in the springtime.

The thing about a lot of predators, red tailed hawks, about 80% of them don't make it through their first year.

What's their predators?

What's their limiting factors?

Part of it is food, weather.

I mean, think about it.

If you were born this spring and you're having to live through this hot summer and you're young and you're not being able to catch food or find water, there's some things like that.

And then people, pesticides, a lot of things.

Do other birds eat these or are they at the top of the food chain?

They're almost there.

We say they're at the top.

There is a bird that will catch these and eat them every great once in a while and it's.

Oh, your partner over there.

Sitting next to me.

We better talk about him a little bit.

By the way, this bird minds really well.

I can just tell it to spread its wings.

Watch this.

See?

How you like that?

Do it again.

Thank you.

Try that.

Thanks.

Good job, Eric.

Hey, Trent, tell me what you have there.

So I have a great horned owl, and this one's a male.

So just like Eric was saying, you can tell the difference between male and female by that size.

So he's a little bit smaller.

Female great horned owls will get a little bit bigger, up to about 5 pounds.

Now people don't usually see as many owls I think, as they do hawks.

There are some common owls in Arkansas too.

Let's look at some of those video before we talk about this great horned owl.

The one that always amazed me was the screech owl.

The little screech owl.

Talk about the screech owl.

Yeah.

So eastern screech owl is really neat owl, is what we call an urban owl.

They're oftentimes found near us, near people.

So they love those little patches of woods and suburbs.

It looks like he has horns too.

So but those are actually just feathers.

Their feather tufts.

Exactly.

And they're part of their communication system.

So they can use those feather tufts when they're upset or anything like that.

They can use those feather tufts to kind of signal to other birds.

Yeah.

So the screech owl looks a little bit like that, but a lot smaller.

Yeah.

Well, they.

Sure do.

Another common, two more common ones that I'm familiar with is a barn.

The barn owl.

Talk about that a little bit.

The barn owl is a really neat species of owl.

They're actually found all over the world, not just here.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

So the only place we can't find barn owls is in Antarctica.

Is that the monkey face, they call it?

The heart face or whatever.

Look at that.

They come in different subspecies.

So some are a little bit darker, some are lighter.

So you get some dark ones.

And some cultures around the world don't really like having them around.

They think they represent ghosts and things like that.

But the barn owl, it's a really neat bird.

They're incredibly smart.

They've been tested.

They can actually tell the difference between different prey items based on the sound of their footsteps.

No.

Incredibly smart.

Now, is that the one that says who cooks for you, who cooks for you all?

Know that?

No, that's the next one.

The next one's the barred owl.

Yes.

Name for the vertical bars on their bellies.

The barred owl is really neat because they're actually found all over the state of Arkansas.

And any of the different types of habitats we have.

And the reason they are, is because they have a very diverse diet.

So we talked about these birds.

They eat mostly mice and rats, squirrels, rabbits, things like that.

But the barred owl will actually go in and eat in things like snakes and lizards and frogs and salamanders.

They've even eat crayfish sometimes.

And they've also been known to eat bats.

Really?

Yeah.

So by having such a diverse diet, they can always find pretty much what they want.

If it's kicking and moving.

And that's the one that says their cadence of the call is who cooks for you, who cooks for you all.

All the turkey hunters know that.

Well, they sure do.

All right.

Let's talk about the great horned owl.

How old is that one?

So this guy is actually about 12 years old.

So the great horned owl is the largest species of owls that we have here in Arkansas.

They are incredibly strong, and they've got a bad reputation when it comes to the way they interact with other birds.

So like Eric mentioned, they oftentimes will eat other birds, including up to red tailed hawks.

They've even been known to hunt down and eat bald eagles.

No, they're they're pretty, did he just wink at me?

He did.

Do they do one eye at a time?

They can.

They can blink one eye at a time.

And they also have a little membrane.

So they have a little extra eyelid there.

So when they're flying through something thick through some thick forest, the thick woods, they can close that membrane to help keep debris out.

I just love nature.

I mean, I didn't know that.

Really?

You would tell me, is this is this okay?

Yeah.

So that's representation of the size of their eyes for the size of their skull.

If we had the same ratio of eye size to the size of our skull, our eyes would be that big.

In other words, if that owl was my size, this would be how big my eyes would be.

Exactly.

Now, what that allows them to do is they can pick up what little light's available at night.

So when dusk, when it starts to get dark, they can use what little light's available see nearly perfectly.

And that allows them to hunt in those low light situations whereas the hawks, they're resting.

They're not hunting that during that time.

So it removes some of the competition.

So they just hunt at night.

And any of these hunt that night as well?

Or are they daytimers?

No.

They're daytime.

So these are diurnal raptors and these are nocturnal raptors.

I got that.

And then we can break it down further you know gets into that, all those different scientific terms, dawn and dusk.

But how big will he get?

So this is full size.

So he's a full size male adult.

Yeah.

Wow.

They're also incredibly strong.

And his feet he has about 500 pounds per square inch of pressure.

So that helps with him hunting down some of those other birds.

They also have a terrible sense of smell.

These great horned owls do.

So they have actually a terrible sense of smell or terrible smell?

Terrible sense of smell, sometimes a terrible smell, because they're the only natural predators for skunks that we have here in Arkansas.

They eat skunks?

They sure do.

No wonder they have a terrible smell every once in a while.

Now, is that the ones, the wings are feathered, I guess feathered?

Yeah.

So with owls, speed is not their thing.

What they're trying to do is they're trying to slip in and sneak up on their prey.

So these guys do have fringed feathers on the tips of their wings.

So when they're flapping and they're flying in, it's almost silent so they can sneak up on their prey very easy.

I've heard them referred to as a silent fliers, and they're on you before you know it.

Oh, yeah.

Now they don't dive bomb like some of these do.

They just sneak up on them and.

Sneak up on them and just kind of swoop down so they're not incredibly fast.

They're not really built for speed.

They're built to be quiet.

Yeah.

Not me.

(laughter) I remember doing some camps when we went to the boys and girls camp.

They did an Owl Prowl, where you go out because there is a food chain in that.

And they taught us not to call this one up first, you call the bottom of the food chain, because if you get him up close to you, the others aren't coming.

Exactly.

Yep.

If the other birds hear this guy out in the woods, they go into hiding.

I got some sounds here of the barn owl.

I'll just make this, if you can hear that.

This is the barn owl.

(screeching sound) That sound may be the reason some of those cultures think that they represent ghosts.

Now, that's not going to trigger him to come over here?

No.

I want to just make sure that.

The eastern screech owl.

I've heard this one out in the woods before, deer hunting at night.

And it makes the hair on my head stand up, which is a pretty good challenge.

Listen.

(screeching sound) That sounds like a woman screaming to me.

The great horned owl.

This is the sound that, we don't name these animals, by the way.

Remember, they're the wild animals, the great horned owl.

(hooting sound) That's kind of wimpy.

(different owl call) I've never heard one of those before.

They make more than one sound.

Do what?

They'll make more than one sound.

Okay.

They have a lot of them.

And the barred owl, the one we talked about.

(hooting sound) Who cooks for you?

Who cooks for you all?

(hooting sound) Yeah.

And before we run out of time, I want to, I want to promote the calendar, the Game and Fish calendar this year.

If you don't have one of these calendars, you get this when you subscribe to the Game and Fish magazine.

And this calendar runs July through July next year.

So it's only about a month or so old.

But the unique thing about this year on this calendar, it's got some great photos in there, but it's got also like the first one's an eagle.

And if you ever hear an eagle, if you ever see an eagle on TV, tell us a little bit about this.

I want to I want to record this for them because every one of these animals that's on this calendar, it has a QR code down there.

And you can scan the QR code, push it, and it makes the sound of the animal up there.

It's kind of unique and neat.

Not only do you get the see a calendar, do you get to hear it, but you tell them why.

I get this lined up about some of the movies that they put out.

So the eagle is a great example.

People are going to be surprised when they hear what they sound like, because you probably only heard eagles on TV, in movies and stuff, and they kind of make a chirping kind of sound, actually.

All right, I'm going to get it right here.

What you hear in the movies.

(chirping sound) So that's the real deal.

That's a real eagle.

But you never hear an eagle flying over doing that.

What are they usually playing?

And you're seeing that eagle fly over in the movies and it makes that screaming sound.

It's this red tailed hawk right here.

Oh, really?

That's what you're hearing.

There's a red tailed hawk scream.

Well, that hurt my feelings, they ought to feature him on there.

Don't get paid a thing for it.

And I think another thing they had, he's going good.

I think they had a screech owl as well.

Yeah.

The eastern screech owl.

Same thing down there.

Let me get it real quick.

If you want to hear eagles chirping like that for real up close, you go down to Pine Bluff.

Oh yeah.

You've got the eagles up there.

They've got them down there.

You can see them.

And look there it is.

(whimper sound) Okay.

So you got all that at the Pine Bluff Nature Center?

Sure do.

That's awesome guys.

Hey it's good information there.

And I know they want to invite you to the nature centers, but there's other places you can learn about this.

There is actually a hawking association.

Talk about that a little bit.

The Arkansas Hawking Association is a group of falconers.

And falconers are people who are using birds of prey to hunt with.

So they don't go out with their shotgun or their rifle to hunt.

They take hawks, falcons, sometimes owls out and and they do not retrieve.

So it's kind of different.

So the bird goes out and captures the prey.

But then its natural instinct is to eat it.

So if you're going to get it then you have to be like the dog.

You're out there trying to flush out the prey and all that kind of stuff, and then you have to retrieve.

I've been on a couple of those and you're right, we just walked around there shaking limbs and make a squirrel move.

And I think we had two falcons following us tree to tree.

And I mean, they were dive bombers.

It was really, but other, other places I might could learn more about the Audubon.

Audubon Society has lots of good information.

The little Rock Zoo has a good bird of prey collection in the state.

Those are probably the top ones right there.

If you want to see them up close or or learn about them online instead of Audubon.

Well, I want to end the show with a challenge for everyone.

This Trent brought me one of these, and this is an owl pellet, and if you've never seen one, you need to.

But basically owls, they eat their prey, mice or whatever, and then they, this comes out of their body, but not the end you think of.

This is an owl pellet.

They actually regurgitate this.

It's a hairball.

Exactly.

Yeah.

And if you tear it apart.

What do you find?

So you find you find fur.

That's what you're really seeing.

A whole bunch of fur.

But inside you'll see all different types of bones.

You'll see basically the skeleton of whatever they ate.

And I know sometimes in schools, you go in there and put the mouse back together and so forth.

We sure do.

Yep.

Owls are incredibly efficient animals.

So we talked about them being able to sneak in to catch their prey, but their bodies are efficient to where they don't want to waste energy on digesting fur.

If people can't come to your nature center, you go do school programs at times?

We sure do.

So on Arkansas Game and Fish website, we have an outreach form.

You fill that out and send it on to us.

And we can we can come out to you.

That's AGFC.com.

And then slash owls or hawks.

Hey guys.

Thank you all so much for being here.

Very very informative.

Great birds, beautiful.

And once again, visit one of the nature centers.

You'll learn all about all sorts of wildlife.

That's all the time we have this time.

I'll see you next time on Naturally Wild.

This program was made possible by Arkansas Hunters Feeding the Hungry, East Harding Construction Company, David's Burgers, Greenway Equipment, Arkansas Farm Bureau, and the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas.

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