Yard Hawks
The last few days I’ve been hearing a lot of screaming in the neighborhood. It’s not like we live next to a daycare center or a haunted house, it’s just that we got a pair of Red-shouldered Hawks that have moved in next door and let’s just say the new residents have a lot to learn about the neighborhood’s noise ordinance.
This isn’t the first time that they’ve attempted to make a go of it in the stand of trees behind my row of townhomes. A couple years back I was really excited to see a pair of Shoulders work diligently on a nest in the crotch of a pine tree nearly 50 feet up. I watched them bringing sticks every day, and then the female would spend hours huddled over their creation. I kept a close eye on the goings on, in the hopes that I’d soon see fluffy baby raptor heads poking out of the top, but this particular pair had a hard time dealing with the neighborhood population of Crows, who wouldn’t tolerate a hawk nest in their territory. One day, following a noticeably intense altercation, the Hawks abandoned and the eggs, or very young nestlings, were taken by the crows, who never miss a opportunity for a meal.
For a year afterwards, the nest set empty. I had hoped that another pair would take it over, or maybe the Barred Owls I hear hooting every year would move in. But it was to no avail, until a couple weeks ago I noticed the nest was once again occupied. Can you find it?
I don’t know if this is the same pair of Shoulders that failed two summers ago. We usually have these hawks in the neighborhood regardless of whether they’re nesting and I know of at least two other pairs of birds a short distance away. Either way, the birds have been spending a fair amount of time at the nest, and I think they’ve already laid as they do that little shuffle birds do when they settle on eggs.
It remains to be seen whether the Crows manage to run off this attempted nesting like they did the last. The male bird seems to spend a lot of time soaring in circles over the neighborhood screaming and has already drawn the ire of the local Crows, I watched a confrontation while I was taking the pictures of the nest.
Here’s hoping they succeed though, not least of which because I’ll have a front row seat.
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Very cool! Maybe I’ll see the fledglings in 6 weeks. Of course, that’s not the young ones that I’ll be really interested in at that time!
Very cool N8 – it seems like a pair of Coopers are eyeing a clump of pines across the road from us. I guess I need to sneak a peek!
Cool’s the word!
I love Red-shoulders and they love me:
I had never seen them during quite some travels through the Great Lakes area, so when I had arrived at Ann Arbor in October to stay there for a year, I went to Lake Erie Metro Park’s hawk watch in hopes of seeing one.
I had barely exited the car when the first bird of the day, one that flew unusually low and straight above me, turned out to be a Red-shouldered. It was the best day for Red-shouldered they had that year at the hawk watch.
So you could say Red-shouldered is my counter-Nemesis!
Glad to read about your hawk activity. On one of my visits to the red-shouldered hawks I’m following, I watched the mail being harrassed by two crows. When he flew, I wondered if he was tired of them or he was leading them away from the nest, maybe both. You have answered my next question, do crows prey on hawk young? Hope your hawks have success this year.
Hey N8, I wish you the best of luck with the Red-shouldered Hawks this year. I had the honor of following a pair (my favorite hawk species)last year as they raised their 3 youngins but they have not come back this year.
I do have a pair nesting somewhere else near my home but I have been unable to find their nest as yet. Wish me luck too. The pair I watched last year were such great parents…I miss them.