HS Environment | Something happened and now a merciless predator is moving even in the center of Helsinki – the success of Kanahaukka repeats the ancient story of adaptors

Chicken hawk the nest, which looks like a pile of scraps, is in a tree at a height of 15 meters on the edge of Helsinki’s Keskuspuisto. It is not easy to see even though it is next to the path.

A dog walker walks past blissfully unaware of the nest.

Ringed Uusimaa’s hen hawks since the 1970s Tapio Solonen looks up.

“One chick is already on that branch. Use binoculars to see if its head is still white,” he asks.

It’s not, it’s brown. The cub looks down at us from the branch next to the nest. A white head would have meant a young sleeper, but this individual has already shed them. That means the bird is probably about five weeks old and ready to take its wings.

“It doesn’t look good now,” Solonen mutters.

There is nothing negative about the fact that the chick has left the nest, but in terms of ringing, this nest may be waterlogged.

Birds are ringed in order to obtain information on an individual level: how they move, how they feel, how long they live. Solonen submits his information to the Central Museum of Natural Sciences.

Once the chicks fly, they cannot be caught. We are late.

As the climate warms, nature’s schedules have moved forward. It came as a surprise, because this nest has not been tracked due to its late discovery.

“When I started these ringings, the ringings of the hen hawk only started here during Midsummer,” says Solonen.

This summer, he has already visited about twenty hen hawk nests in Helsinki and the surrounding area. The nesting success has been good.

“There have been a lot of quads this summer,” says Solonen.

It’s starting to be the maximum for a chicken hawk. You almost never find more than five chicks. Two or three are normal numbers of chicks under normal circumstances.

Today, peregrine falcons succeed in nesting in the capital region even better than in the rest of the country on average. There is a variety of food in the city even in winter, and there is little persecution. In addition, in the Helsinki region, it may even be easier to find sufficiently strong and old nest trees than in the commercial forests of the provinces.

A climber next to it Ly Kaipiainen tunes up his gear. He assists Solo, without pay, too. He shoots the climbing rope around the spruce branch, and another chick flies out of the nest.

It is decided to visit the nest in order to confirm the number of chicks. The buzzard climbs with goggles on, because the mother hen hawk may sometimes attack the climber’s head to defend her nest.

Finally, a third brown chick takes to the wings. All fly quite well already.

Kaipiainen comes down from the fir tree and says that he saw only one half-eaten baby rabbit in the nest.

Solonen comforts him. “The most important information is the number of chicks, the rest is extra.”

According to him, there is no need to worry about the chicks because they were able to fly to the branches of other trees. On the ground, they would be at the mercy of the fox.

The hen hawk chicks stay near the nest until the end of the summer. The parents deliver food to the nest, where the chicks go to eat between their flight exercises.

Now parents are not visible.

Goshawk has come to Helsinki to stay. There are about fifty districts in the capital region, which, according to Solonen, is starting to approach the imaginable maximum number.

“They are evenly distributed everywhere, also very close to the center.”

You can see the large and long-tailed bird of prey practically anywhere, even in the city center. Crows are the main prey, but pigeons, squirrels, rats, rabbits and woodchucks are also tasty.

“Of course there are some, but there are quite a few of them these days,” says Solonen.

The chicken hawk clearly thrives in the capital, but it certainly hasn’t always been that way. The peregrine falcon has traditionally been a bird of large forest wildernesses in Finland, persecuted and admired.

“I never would have believed that there could be a hen hawk’s nest in a place like this,” says Solonen as we stand on the trail. Detached houses and a construction site can be seen between the trees.

When Solonen started ringing, with a few exceptions, peregrine falcons could only be found in the countryside in the best old forests, far from people. There was a reason for that. The peregrine falcon was the last of the birds of prey to be tranquilized in Finland only in 1982. Before that, thousands of them were killed every year.

“They were paid for killing money. The legs had to be cut off as proof, think.”

Chicken hawks were hated because, as their name suggests, they took chickens from yards and wild hens, grouse, grouse, and woodcock chased by hunters from the wild. The hawk was seen as a human competitor.

According to Solonen, the wild bird’s conquest of Helsinki began at the turn of the 21st century. The chicken hawk also spends the winters in Finland, and some of them came to the city in the coldest months to eat food. Little by little, falcons started to stay in the city to nest.

Solonen’s theory is that hen hawks were also drawn from the country to Helsinki by crown pigeons, which started their urbanization a little earlier. Wood pigeons, larger than Pulu, are a very common sight in Helsinki right up to the center today.

The chicken hawk is indeed part of a larger phenomenon: when humans spread their influence, animals in remote areas learn to utilize human-built environments and the food provided by human settlement. Adapters thrive.

In recent years, marten have also come to Helsinki. Solonen has found a dozen hen hawk nests this summer, where some animal has been robbing the nest and ruining the breeding dreams.

“A marten is the most likely option,” the tire expert estimates.

Solonen I want to visit another hen hawk’s nest in Helsinki, a little further from the center. The distance to the previous nest is only a couple of kilometers as the crow flies.

That’s new too. On land, a chicken hawk would never be satisfied with such a small territory.

“Before, you couldn’t even imagine such a density for a hen hawk,” says Solonen.

Funny but true: chicken hawks also live more closely in the city than in the countryside.

This nest is in a squat pine at a height of about ten meters. A look through the binoculars reveals that there is at least one white-headed chick sitting in the nest. At the base of the nest, you can see scattered magpie chick feathers.

Kaipiainen starts adjusting his climbing equipment again and then he languishes. One of the chicks takes off. However, it is not yet as skilled as the testers of the previous nest’s wings. The flight goes downwards and the baby falcon hangs upside down on a spruce branch.

From there, it pushes itself to a vertical position, but the next flight ends on a mossy ground. This individual can be ringed.

Solonen grabs it by the legs. This way, the hawk is best kept under control and the legs do not twist. He records the length of the hand wing as 254 millimeters and the weight as exactly one kilogram. This bird is also about five weeks old.

Finally, an aluminum ring with more detailed information is placed on one ankle and a larger plastic “reading ring” on the other, whose information can be read even from a distance, for example with binoculars or a photo, without having to catch the bird.

The series of letters can be combined with ringing data, which is delivered to the Central Museum of Natural Sciences in Solonen.

This bird is a dog, because the ankles are thin. Female hen hawks are always more ferocious. It’s because of the division of roles.

“Dogs should be nimble and agile, and females should be big and scary,” Solonen sums up. The females incubate and defend the nest, the males dart between the trees after their prey.

While Solonen uses his ring pliers, Kaipiainen climbs the pine with his ropes as if climbing a ladder. From there, with the help of a bag and a rope, the dog’s sister, who is apparently a few days younger, can be hauled down. It is still heavier than its brother: 1,190 grams.

Solonen reflects on the disadvantages and benefits of ringing. Of course, there is always some disturbance from that, and this operation must have been somewhat of a shock to these chicks. On the other hand, findings of ringed birds show that they live full lives and reproduce like others. Information is accumulating.

It is a matter of honor for Solonen that such poor-flying chicks are always returned to the nest. Once the information is collected, the siblings get the same bag lift ride that the female cub came down with. Only after that Kaipiainen comes down from the tree.

Before leaving, Solonen takes another look at the nest.

The dog has already gotten out of the nest to roost on a branch, but the female is still staying in the shelter of the shelter.

“Dogs are usually more eager to go,” says Solonen.

From behind the forest, you can hear the shrill screams of seagulls, which keep getting closer. The parents of the hen hawk chicks are returning to the nest with escorts.