JKNatureGallery.com 2006 Red-Tailed Hawk News Archive Jan 2006 - Oct 2006

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Red Tail Hawk News Archive Jan 2006 - Oct 2006

Red Tail Hawk News Archive Nov 2006 - Dec 2006

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January 27, 2006. We discovered the nest site on an apartment complex it appears that nest building activities have been ongoing for a few days to a week based on amount of twigs in the nest.

Current Red-Tailed Hawk News

March 8th 2006. Nest building activities have continued, the nest is growing nicely and looks completed. The female hawk is spending much more time at or near the nest.

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March 9th or 10th. The nest has been removed from the building and the hawks are not around. The last time we had seen the nest in place was on March 8th. We visited the site on March 11th at 3:55pm, the nest is completely gone

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March 11th. After searching for hours we found the parent hawks. They selected a different apartment complex nearby. The new nest appears almost completed after approximately 48 hours of construction.

New York City Audubon Society

Hudson Valley Raptor Center

Over the next couple weeks the hawks continue to add some additional nest materials to the new nest. We have observed many pair bonding and mating activities on a regular basis.

Mission Wolf

March 24th. This is the first night that Mama has over-nighted on the new nest. At this time we assume that she has produced at least one egg.

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Throughout the next weeks Mama continues to stay on the nest. She leaves the nest only for very short durations when the nest is in direct sunlight or when Papa relieves her. She typically returns in less than five minutes.

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The last days in April, Mama is observed moving around the perimeter of the nest bowl, we think an egg may have hatched.

May 1st. The first visual sighting of two baby hawks in the nest.

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During the next month and a half Mama and Papa routinely feed the youngsters. Each day the parents remove food remnants far from the nest location once the youngsters have finished eating.

The week of June 12th the young hawks are very active and have grown most of their feathers. At this time they almost look like the adult hawks from a distance. They are also regularly exercising their wings.

June 17th dawn. Both young hawks have left the nest and are in nearby trees testing their new flight capability. One young hawk has very light-colored feathers around the face, we named it "White Face" for the distinctive markings.

Over the following week since fledging the two young hawks return to the nest late in the afternoon to be fed by the parents.

The two young hawks are doing well. They are staying in nearby trees and on nearby building rooftops. The last week in June we lost track of one baby hawk and have not seen it since. White Face continues to progress well gaining more confidence and exhibiting strong flight skills.

Week of July 24th. Now 12 weeks old, the young baby Red-Tail hawk we named White Face is doing well learning how to hunt on its own on a regular basis.

June 25th. White Face is expanding its range, observed hunting pigeons most of the afternoon many blocks away from the area we call the "general training" area near the nest location.

July 28th. We have not been able to find our hawk parents or our young hawk for a couple days now. We have searched for three hours yesterday in all their favorite spots as well as other areas with no luck.

July 31st. The very hot humid weather is making it difficult to find our red tails. They tend to find a nice place to ride out the heat of the day. We spotted Mama at sunset sitting on the top of a nearby office building.

August 1st. White Face is observed chasing pigeons over a nearby office building in the late Afternoon. The parents we not spotted today.

August 5th. The hot weather (100+ degree days) and heavy humidity once again has made it difficult to find our red tails the past few days. After hours of searching today we finally spotted both Mama and White Face. They were both doing well, White Face was in the middle of eating dinner and shortly after completing the meal went off to find a place to sleep for the evening. Mama stayed on the local office building to spend the night.

August 6th, Two hours of searching, no sightings today.

August 7th. No sightings today.

August 8th. One of the hawks was observed flying very high in the sky today. It was difficult to determine the identity but it appeared to be White Face.

August 9 & 10. Prior commitments prevented me from searching for our red tails.

August 12. At 3:30pm We spotted one of our red tails sitting on the roof fencing of an apartment building over 20 stories high. At this distance and with the sun in our eyes it was very difficult to determine the identity. However, this location is Mama's favorite spot. At 6:00pm Mama was located on a lamp post in the local municipal parking lot. She did not stay longer than five minutes and then she flew off to the West end of their territory.

August 13 & 14. No sightings of our red tail family.

August 15 to 17. Other commitments prevented me from looking for our red tails on these days.

August 18. After much searching there were no sightings of our red tails today. However, evidence was observed that one of the red tails had visited their favorite area today.

August 19. At 6:30pm Mama was found sitting on a local government building. Mama looked fine, there were no signs of White Face or Papa.

August 20. None of our hawk family was seen this afternoon. This evening at 8pm we found Mama settled in for the night on one of their regular fire escape locations on a 6 story apartment building.

August 21, 22. Our hawk family has not been seen on these days. As the summer progresses it becomes increasingly difficult to track the entire family during the same day. The parents do not spend as much time together as they do during the breeding, nesting and fledging season. The young become more independent at this point of their development and continue to explore territories further away from the parents area.

August 23-25. Many hours were spent searching for our hawk family the past couple of days and unfortunately  we could not find them. We hope they are ok, a number of rats and squirrels were found dead along the way. It appeared they were poisoned. Additionally, a number of late night walks to check our hawks favorite sleeping spots also turned up empty.

August 26. Finally, we have found Mama today. She was resting on top of a 6 story apartment building roof around 6pm, she looked fine. We still have not seen Papa or baby White Face for some time now.

August 27 & 28.  Time and weather conditions minimized our ability to search for our hawk family on these days, no sightings during the day or at night at their roosting locations.

August 29. Mama was spotted roosting for the evening on a local government building.

August 30. The weather interfered with efforts to look for our hawk family today.

August 31. FINALLY, today around 3:30pm Papa and baby White Face were seen flying together and chasing pigeons. I did not have my camera with me today, so unfortunately, no new images. I was just gals to see they were ok after not seeing them for a couple weeks. It didn't seem that they were hunting the pigeons, it seemed more that they were just enjoying themselves on this beautiful sunny afternoon. Both hawks looked fine, Papa's red tail was very prominent with the late afternoon sun. Mama did not appear to be in the area.

September 1. At 6pm Mama was sitting on a local government building. Soon after finding her she started hunting in the area. She settled in a nearby tree keeping a close eye on the squirrels moving about on the ground. I left her alone so as not to interfere with her catching dinner for the day.

September 2-6. Time to search for our hawk family has been limited due to the Holiday weekend and bad weather. There have been no new sightings of our hawk family on these days.

September 7 - October 13. We have spotted Mama during this time at least once every 3-5 days. We have seen her enjoying the thermals high in the sky over her territory and spending the night in her favorite local spots. Also during this time White Face had appeared on a couple of occasions showing very strong flight skills and looking very confident. Papa has been very difficult to find. Recently, in the past ten days he has appeared a couple times enjoying the thermals with Mama while surveying their territory. On 10/12 both Mama and Papa were soaring high in the sky together in the late afternoon.

October 14. Mama and Papa were flying together once again today around 2:30pm, not very far off to their South, White Face was also in flight. Later in the day around 6:30pm Mama was taking in the last of the late afternoon sun on top of a chimney on a local apartment building. She appeared to be looking for a meal before turning in for the night. Mama stayed on this building for about 15 minutes, she then flew off to another area apartment complex two blocks away landing on a rooftop antenna.

October 15. Mama was high in the sky once again today circling the area apparently looking for food. I watched her for about 15 minutes before she was very high and to far away to see her against the bright mid afternoon sun.

October 16. Mama once again was sitting on a few of her favorite apartment building antennas watching her territory in the mid to late afternoon.

October 17. Mama is developing a pattern the past few days sitting on her favorite apartment building antennas watching her territory in the mid to late afternoon.

October 18. The bad weather limited the search for our hawk family, none of the hawks were seen today.

October 19. Mama was sitting on a local apartment building antenna very late in the afternoon. She did not move from this spot while being observed.

October 20. No sign of Mama or any of our hawk family on these two days. A search in the late evening for Mama or Papa did not find them on their favorite over night sleeping spots on these nights.

October 21. Both Mama and Papa enjoyed this breezy sunny afternoon together soaring very high in the sky for a good portion of the mid afternoon. Mama chased after a mylar balloon that was a great distance away from her location with a magnificent stoop. Mama was also flying with her legs extended downward a few times. Mama and Papa were also flying close together on numerous occasions, apparently playing or pair bonding. This evening neither of our hawks selected one of their nearby overnight spots to sleep.

October 22. No sign of Mama or any of our hawk family today.

October 23. All three of members of our hawk family were very active today, all of them were flying in the same general vicinity of each other. Mama surprised us with significant nest building activities (a new nest) on a local Government building. It will be interesting to see if this will be the new nest site for the 2007 season. Although, it is very early to start a new nest for next season, this activity is typically started in the mid January time frame. There is also a possibility that this may become a decoy nest site. A number of bird species have been known to construct a number of decoy nesting sites to confuse predators. Over the last two years our hawks have had their nests destroyed by humans as discussed in my article published on the NYC Audubon website Urban Red-Tails: The Queens Experience . They may be adapting this technique to ensure a safe nesting location for next breeding season. If this is the case it would be one of the first observations of red-tail hawks using decoy nests. Papa and White Face were also very active today. Papa was flying around near Mama observing her nest building and White Face was in the area of the 2006 nest site and also actively flying around the area.

October 24. No sign of Mama or any of our hawk family today.

October 25. Both Mama and Papa were actively flying in and around our local area today. No new signs of Mama adding to the new nest.

October 26-29. No sign of Mama or any of our hawk family on these days.

October 30. Both Mama and Papa were actively flying in and around our local area today. No sign of White Face today.

October 31. No sign of Mama or any of our hawk family today.

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