Hawks

There are times in life that you just get lucky and are witness to a miracle. This isn't one of those OMG somebody's life got saved or changed, it's about seeing the magic of Mother Nature. We planted about 500 trees this spring down on the meadow at the bottom of the hill. My brothers were over and my younger bother David told me there was a stick nest in a tree part way up the hill. Would I have ever noticed it if he hadn't said something? The honest answer is probably not. It seems that most of the time I have a single minded purpose and intent. Always on my way to do something and doing my best not to be distracted along the way. It is my battle with attention deficit disorder. It is  far to easy for me to go off on a tangent. Look, a rock. Puppies. What's on TV tonight? Squirrel! I like hot dogs. It is my thought process if I let my mind go. Anyway this is my first picture of the nest of a Red Tail Hawk taken on April 4, 2012.

At this point there was an argument about what kind of bird it was between me and my younger brother. He had seen the mother bird and felt the nest and the bird were too large to be a Red Tail Hawk. It seemed to me that since there were very few other birds of prey in the area that built that type of nest it had to be a Red Tail Hawk. When a representative from the USDA was out to inspect my tree planting I pointed the nest out to him. He asked if the bird had a white head. I said no. He responded with good because if it did he would have to restrict my access to the meadow and I could do no work until the baby eagles left the nest. It is little wonder the people hate the government. Fortunately for me on May 14, 2012 Momma Red Tail gave me this indisputable evidence.

                            

It was clear at that point that there were young hawks in the nest that she was feeding. It had been impossible to get a picture of them at this point. It was always a difficult balancing act. Trying to get in the area to get a picture without disturbing her and the babies too much. This picture was taken the next day on May 15, 2012 when I caught this little guy or gal peering over the edge of the nest. We had babies and they were downy white.

Every time I went down to try to snap a few pictures Momma Hawk would circle overhead and screech at me. It would go on until I was back up the hill or moved off in a vehicle. If I was walking around the meadow it would continue the entire time I was down in the area.



Momma Hawk is tough to see in the picture above. She is very camera shy and I am thrilled I got a few shots of her on the nest. She would stay high above the trees keeping a watchful eye on her babies.

The picture above is of the young hawks taken on May 23, 2012. At this point they are noticably bigger but still downy white. The final picture taken on June 12, 2012 shows the young pair standing on the edge of the nest having a look at the world they will soon be flying over. What a handsome pair they are.

A few notes on the pictures. If you go back and scroll through them you may note the foliage has gotten thicker as the spring progressed. The hole I shot the pictures through got smaller every time and the nest harder to find in the trees. The pictures were all taken from over 100 feet away and the nest is about 60 feet up in an old oak tree. My camera is able to zoom to 40X and all these pictures were taken at the maximum. It is extremely difficult to locate the subject and hold the camera still enough to keep them in the frame. Overall I took about 250 pictures. The ones presented here represent the best of the 100 or so I saved. Finally, I love the english language. Everything has a name baby hawks included. A baby hawk is called an eyas. If you have more than one baby hawk they are referred to as eyases. The word is pronounced "EYE-ess". You may now impress your friends and family with new knowledge and perhaps score a point in a trivia game.