Photo credit: Jeff Nicol

by Don Torino                                        

New York City may have Pale Male, the famous red-tailed hawk, but we in New Jersey have the raptors of Route 17.

Of course you could argue that should be the raptors of Route 18, or the New Jersey Turnpike, or the Garden State Parkway for that matter.  But having worked on Route 17 in Paramus for 15 years, I have intimate knowledge of how well some raptors have adapted to one of the nations’ busiest highways.  We all wish that our wildlife would not have to adapt to such places, and unfortunately some do meet with a tragic.  Never-the-less, watching how well they can survive in such a harsh environment has been amazing.

Route 17 in Paramus is not only a tough environment for creatures like red-tailed hawks to survive - it’s a pretty nasty place for commuters as well!  The commute on any weekday at rush hour is more like a crawl than a drive.  Whether it’s an accident or a shopping frenzy, there are days when you can read “War and Peace” before you get to step on the gas pedal.  But this has allowed me watch some breathtaking ways in which raptors, such as red-tailed hawks, make a living.

One evening myself and a few thousand other drivers were doing our nightly drive home when traffic slowed down to its usual stop.  I happened to glance out the window in my usual zombified commuting condition, when I saw a magnificent red-tailed hawk chasing a pigeon.  It caught it under the awning of a famous big box pet store.  Customers continued going in and out, none of them seeming to notice.

There is something poetic about nature at its most dramatic taking place at the entrance to a pet store.  Over the years I have seen red-tails pulling apart rats, rabbits, squirrels and pigeons right above the heavy traffic intersection of Routes 17 and 4.  I wonder if I am the only one in this mass of metal and rubber spread across the roadway that sees this.  I confess that I have been known on occasion to accidentally run a stop sign or two when watching these roadside raptors in action.  Like the morning I just couldn’t take my eyes off a diving red-tail doing his grocery shopping in the parking lot of a food store.  Try telling a Bergen County cop that you ran a red light watching a hawk over at the Pathmark.  Get ready for a breathalyzer test!

Of course, red-tails are not the only birds of prey that use New Jersey’s highways for their hunting pleasure.  Cooper’s hawks do a great job terrorizing Paramus pigeons.  Glancing out the large window of the store where I work, I saw a young Cooper’s hawk bring a pigeon down right in the parking lot just a few feet from the busy shopping traffic.  As we watched in awe, a well-meaning person ran over from the donut shop next store in an attempt to rescue breakfast away from the Cooper’s.  As I ran out to tell the man to please allow nature to do its thing, the hawk attempted to carry the pigeon away.  Alas, the hawk dropped the pigeon.

I wondered how many times this kind of thing gets repeated across the highways of New Jersey, making it even more difficult for birds like these to survive in the concrete jungle.  Think of all the hazards that these regal creatures have to contend with everyday: trucks, toxins, glass windows, and the list goes on. Hard to understand how any of them can survive, yet here they are.

On any given morning as I open the door to my job and think about the day ahead, I can usually turn around and say good morning to a beautiful red-tailed hawk who has loved perching on the same dead snag for years now.  He stares looks ahead as majestic as any bird of prey could ever be.  He is a reminder to me and any other person lucky enough or observant enough to see him that nature goes on right under our nose, no matter what else is going on in our own world.  Nature is here and survival goes on, even as we drive home.

Previous exclusives by Don Torino:

• Don’s Jersey Birding: The Christmas Bird Count, then and now
• Don's Jersey Birding: The Meadowlands get better with age
• WNJ Exclusive: Autumn offers birds a transition period in New Jersey

Don Torino is the Education Chairperson for Bergen County Audubon Society.