Saturday, February 14, 2009(For equipment info, click here)This morning as I arrived I found
one adult (female) in a tree near the nest tree. The male showed
up and entered the nest for a few minutes. His occasional
vocalizations were answered (more softly) by the female. The male
then flew to the female's location and mated with her. The female
then flew off to a tree to the west, and the male followed.
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April, 2008
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Sunday, March 9 (2008)(For equipment info, click here)Today I observed the
hawks at
their nest from about noon until about 5:30pm. Most of that time
was
fairly uneventful, except when the bird in the nest left to perch
briefly
with its mate in a nearby tree. The longest the nest was left
unattended was 5 minutes --- at about 5:44pm the male left the nest
flying directly in a southerly direction, to disappear out of sight,
only to return 5 minutes later from the same direction. In all
cases
the adult on the nest sits low as if incubating eggs, rising
occasionally to reposition him/her-self and sometimes to (as I imagine)
turn the eggs so as to achieve more even heating of the embryos
within. The adults did copulate on a nearby limb in the
mid-afternoon. When I left at about 6pm only one adult was in
view, on
the nest.
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Sunday, March 2 (2008)This weekend I spent at
least
5 hours both days at Duke Gardens, but did not observe any
red-shouldered hawk
activity at or near the nest. Rollen W. again proved to be a
hawk-magnet by finding a juvenile Cooper's Hawk actively hunting at the
feeder in the bamboo stand near the parking lot.
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Saturday, February 9 (2008)This morning I arrived
at the
Gardens and began photographing songbirds near the parking lot.
After encountering a singing Rufous-sided Towhee and an Eastern
Bluebird I observed a red-shouldered hawk land in a tree.
Immediately
thereafter another hawk perched beside the bird. Soon the male
mounted the female in copulation. This took place in a tree not far
from a nest in which fellow photographer Rollen W. had observed some
red-shouldered hawk activity only days prior to this.
   Update: Cynthia F. informs me that a pair of red-shouldered hawks bred in this location last year. |
