Rita, greetings--
        Northern harriers will roost communally when there are enough of them
in a given area. There is some published research for Ohio: Bildstein,
Kenneth L. 1979. Fluctuations in the number of Northern Harriers (Circus
cyaneus hudsonius) at communal roosts in south central Ohio. Raptor
Resarch 13:40-46.  You are lucky, since comparatively few birders get to
witness this; these roosts usually break up a few minutes before dawn,
and form a few minutes after--not when you'll find many observers at Magee!
        They seem to be the nocturnal-roosting counterparts of day-roosting
short-eared owls in many spots. Both roost on the ground by preference
(in the absence of heavy snow), and feed with similar techniques on the
same small rodents in grassland habitats, but they just occupy different
time periods.  I have often seen many of both in a few minutes at dusk
at places like Killdeer Plains, where foraging harriers are, when it
starts to grow dark, harrassed by increasing numbers of owls until the
"shift change" is complete.
Nice observation,
Bill Whan
Columbus


Rita Schneider wrote:
> On 1/9 I observed what looked to be 20 Northern Harriers off the causeway,
> some harrassing a Red-tailed Hawk sitting in a tree alongside the road. As
> the light faded they seem to disappear, and assumed they were some kind of
> migrating group that had moved on.
>
> Never having seen so many harriers before, I called Mary Warren the next
> morning to inquire. I later discovered that they sometimes roost communally
> during the winter non-breeding season.
>
> So, I returned on Saturday with my niece Jessica to stake out the causeway,
> and saw first about 6 harriers working the area, and then up to 14 harriers
> arrive from the east at sunset.
>
> Kenn Kaufman was kind enough check a photo I'd sent him over the weekend,
> and to confirm the precedent of harriers roosting in Ohio.
>
> Has anyone seen the harriers at Magee prior to 1/9?  Has anyone seen
> roosting activity elsewhere in Ohio (this year or otherwise)?
>
> (Apologies for not posting the sightings sooner, but wanted to confirm all
> the birds were harriers and had some concerns about disturbing their
> activity...)
>
> Cheers,
> Rita Schneider

______________________________________________________________________

Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society.
Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list.
Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/.

You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at:
http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS
Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]