On Sunday, 2 May, Big Red and Arthur, the mated couple of Red-tail Hawks on the Cornell Campus in Ithaca, New York have a pip!
The first egg was laid on 26 March. Different places have ways of counting. My way is to not count the day there was a hatch. So this makes it 37 days. If you count the day the egg was laid it is 38 days – all within Big Red’s traditional 37-41 days from laid to hatch.
Oh, this is so exciting!
Big Red is an 18 year old Red tail hawk. She was banded on the 20th of October at Brooktondale in 2003. We do not know, as yet, the name of the bander. Arthur is 5 years old. He hatched in an adjacent territory to Big Red and her long time mate, Ezra, in 2016. Ezra was killed in 2017 trying to protect Big Red. That year was the only year that she did not have a clutch.
A young juvenile came to the nest in April. He wooed Big Red, amongst other suitors, over the summer. That young juvenile did not even have his red tail when he landed on Big Red’s nest! But, out of all the suitors, Big Red will pick ‘Wink’ as he was known locally at the time. In the fall of 2017, they will begin building their nest. Wink’s was given the name Arthur in honour of the founder of the Cornell Lab, Arthur A. Allen. They have successfully fledged chicks in 2018, 2019, and 2020. They are an amazing couple!
In order to prepare yourself for what is coming, you should have a look at the 2020 highlights:
And here is the link to follow all of the action – and I do mean action.
There will be lots of prey deliveries of many kinds. The nest will be loaded. You will be able to see the teaching moments of the parent hawks. You will watch them run and jump and get their muscles strong for fledge. And in all of it, you will get to see this beautiful raptor family live out their daily lives. I cannot recommend a better nest to watch. And if you can’t keep up with all your nest watching, I promise to bombard you with news from this one because it will always be ‘my heart of hearts’.
Thank you for joining me. I will give lots of updates later as we are now on official hatch watch.
Thank you to the Cornell Bird Lab for their streaming cam. That is where I grab my screen shots.
