DFW Urban Wildlife

This observation is the continuation of a previous post. The previous article can be found here Red-tailed Hawk – Nest Update 2

The female was sitting high atop the cell phone tower today when I arrived. From her vantage point she was doing the double duty of keeping an eye on her young as well as watching for her mate to return with breakfast.

Soon, the male did return, but he was empty handed. He circled the nest a couple of times and even attempted landing up close to the female. He aborted this attempt at the last second, possibly detecting the females displeasure with his lack of production this morning.

In any case, the male flew away to the north and was soon gone from sight.

Meanwhile, one of the juvenile birds decided to do some morning stretches. His fast growing flight feathers were easily visible. He was clearly beginning to take on the brown coloration of a more mature bird.

At some point while I was photographing the juvenile, the adult male returned and landed at the top of the tower right next to the female. This is when things really started getting exciting.

The male was still empty handed, so he did not stay atop the tower long. He soon launched himself into the air and did a remarkable dive straight toward my position. I was not prepared for what happened next.

The hawk zoomed by my position and briefly disappeared behind the tree I was standing next to. I expected him to continue on and possible enter the neighborhood behind me.

Instead, I heard the starlings congregated in a tree behind me call out in alarm. I turned just in time to see our male hawk crash headlong into the thickest part of the tree. Starling and leaves erupted, going every which way.

The hawk dug himself out of the tree and flew to the roof of a nearby business before I could bring my camera to bear. Again he was empty handed. The hunt had been a failure. It just wasn’t this poor hawk’s morning. And, to add insult to injury, an agressive Northern Mockingbird began to harassing the marauding hawk, and soon drove him away.

This observation is continued here: Red-tailed Hawk – Nest Update 4

This observation is the continuation of a previous post. The previous article can be found here Red-tailed Hawk – Nest Update 1

In this edition of my weekly Red-tailed Hawk nest observation I found the nest unattended by the adult birds when I arrived. I settled in for a short wait, and within 30 minutes both adults returned to the nest.

The female arrived first and landed high above the nest near the very top of the cellphone tower. The male followed soon afterward, and he was carrying breakfast. From the looks of things the male had captured a European Starling.

As the male approached, the female flew down to the an antenna near the nest. The male landed nearby, and passed the starling on to the female. She then moved down to the nest and began plucking feathers from her prey. This is when I finally got my first look at a juvenile hawk in this nest.

The eyas was excited by promise of the meal to come and began begging to be fed. Later, another young hawk could be seen jockeying with the first for position.

So, there are at least two baby hawks in this nest, and they appear to be around two weeks old.

This observation is continued here: Red-tailed Hawk – Nest Update 3