Tag Archives: Redtail hawks

E19 is one strong little eaglet

It is difficult to describe how much snow we have in our garden. It is impossible to give an accurate picture of the amount that has fallen over the past 48 hours. The snow on the wood pile boxes is a good measure as it lands and stays put, usually without blowing away!

The House Sparrows were glad there was food still left in the long cylinder for them. I had cleared the snow off the tops yesterday afternoon late.

The European Starlings are waiting for their meal worms and Bark bites. I have started mixing in Black Sunflower Seed. I wonder if they will still be as happy??? They sure love those Meal Worms!

Despite the wintery weather, there are reports of record numbers of Cedar Waxwings and Bohemian Waxwings in our City along with the usual suspects. My daughter was out walking and, lucky for us, she had her phone with her and snapped this Pileated Woodpecker. She said she thought someone was pounding wood with a hammer!

Oh, how lucky for her.

Hob Osterlund is reporting that it is taking as many as 30 days for the adults to find enough food to return to to replace their mates incubating eggs of the Laysan Albatross. Warming oceans and over fishing are responsible. We need some creative and brave leaders to do what is necessary which could include a moratorium on factory fishing. I was told by a very reliable source that we have lost 90% of the fish numbers since the end of the 19th century.

Can we fish farm to feed the oceans?

It was a rocky night for E19. Dad, M15, got hit twice by the Great Horned Owl and Harriet, Mum, was honking in warning. Meanwhile, Harriet continued to aerate the nest and turn E20 – which meant that E19 was tossed and turned too.

E19 does not look any the worse for wear. This is one strong little eaglet. Right now I am cooing and gooing but, when E20 arrives I will probably be calling E19 out for beaking its sibling.

Look how strong that neck is today. It isn’t even 24 hours. Harriet and M15 have some good DNA going into these kids. Already looks like a bossy older sibling!

There is a mid-morning snack of squirrel.

Harriet says, ‘Open Wide’.

This is the latest view of E20 working on that shell. If you are watching the camera you can see the little one working and moving about trying to get out. It won’t be long.

Bazza continues to be the ‘bully’, if you like, of the nest on the Port Lincoln Osprey Barge. I counted at least three fish deliveries on the nest that he took yesterday —- knocking siblings off the nest so that he had it all. How many times will I wonder if this first hatch won’t wind up living on that nest til the parents kick him off?

All three are fine. Falky was the latest to be kicked off. He is working hard to catch his fish and it appears that Ervie is already having some luck in the water. Sadly, Bazza is the loser as he needs to learn to be independent.

If you go over to the cameras for the Orange Peregrine Falcons with Diamond and Xavier, you might find that they are off line. Cilla Kinross has turned them off at the suggestion of the IT office to try and get rid of the trolls that are hounding the chat rooms. She also mentions that she will be changing the view of the cameras periodically.

Big Red, the Queen of the Cornell Redtail Hawks is back on Campus. Meanwhile there are reports that Arthur was depending their Beebe Lake Territory against interlopers yesterday.

I will be trying to get my car out of the drive today. It is booster jabs. We have no idea what the back streets are like to reach the main ones. Wish us luck!

Take care. It is wonderful to have you with me on this journey with our beloved birds.

Thank you to the following for their streaming cams or FB pages where I took my screen captures: SWFlorida Eagle Cam and D Pritchett, Port Lincoln Osprey, and Hob Osterlund.

The Js have grown up.

It has been nearly a month since I wrote my last blog. On May 6, I made the argument that a Red tail hawk named Big Red should be ‘Mother of the Year 2020.’ I am still entranced with the antics of Big Red, her mate Arthur, and their three eyasses (baby hawks) living on top of an 80 foot light tower at the University of Ithaca. Those fuzzy little nestlings, all cute and bonking one another, are now approaching the ‘fledge’ window.

The Js during their first week all lined up to be fed by Big Red. Hawks need a variety of food for their health and the territory of Big Red and Arthur is rich in prey. 77% of their diet is chipmunk with pigeons, squirrels, snakes, and other birds making up the remainder.
The hawklet at the back is J3 self feeding on a chipmunk. J3 was born four days after J1 and J2 and is the smallest of the three. Due to its small size, many believe that this bird is a male. The only way to know gender for certain is through DNA testing or seeing an egg laid.

Fledging is the term used for when the eyasses fly off the natal nest and begin their journey towards being independent of their parents. The average age is approximately forty-two days after hatching for this nest. The eyasses need their flight feathers to have grown in with approximately five but better six dark stripes, not including the white terminal band at the end, in their tail feathers.

The hawklet on the left is the youngest, J3. Notice that he has 2 clear black stripes with a hint of a third while the one on the right clearly has four.

They should be able to sleep standing up, and must be able to self-feed. At the time of fledging, the eyasses’ wing span will actually be larger than their parents. The length of the wings will return to a normal size for juvenile hawks during their first molt. The larger wingspan and tail feathers really helps them to achieve success during fledging. They will not get their beautiful red tails until the second year. The ‘fledge window’ for 2020 is between June 4-13. Sometimes a eyass fludges. Fludging is when a chick accidentally flies off the nest. There will be hundreds of eyes on the Cornell Hawk cam as the Js hop, jump, and flap their way to independence.

One of the Js jumping on the nest (above and below). Eventually they will run and jump on the metal grating of the light stand.

During the first three to six weeks after fledging, the parents continue to provide food for the young ones while they learn to capture prey on their own, going for ground forays from their perch. They are learning how to control their flight before they can catch things that run away. Their parents will continue to give aerial and soaring demonstrations and help the hawklets well into the end of summer. By the time that Big Red and Arthur are decided which nest of theirs to use for raising their next batch of chicks, the Js will be out finding their own territory. They will not get their beautiful red tail feathers until they are a year old. And, most of the time, they will be two or three before breeding. Arthur seems to be an exception as he was one when he became big Red’s mate.

Big Red has been doing aerial displays for the Js for the past several days. You can tell she is soaring as the Js twist and turn to get a good look at her. Yesterday she flew right up to the nest and pulled up disappearing into the sky as seen in the photograph below. Oh, the little ones so want to fly and soar. It won’t be long!