Reader Rick Wayne from Madison, Wisconsin sent us a series of red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis), their family, and their tail (his captions):
A family of redtails has been nesting across the street from Soil Science for a couple of years now. I happened to catch one of the adults (female? they’re so various that I have a hard time telling) at quite short range disassembling a squirrel. Given your affection for the latter, I won’t link the video, I’ll just say that single-framing it with my kids was very instructive about internal squirrel anatomy (“Wait, is that a stomach or a lung?” “Definitely a lung.”)
Of course I filled up my memory card and, while frantically trying to figure out what to delete on it, the hawk decided it had had enough attention, gathered the much-flatter remains in its talons, and majestically flapped away. So I missed the real money shot.The next day, my 500mm and I happened to catch some action at the nest.What’s interesting about these guys is that they’re such urban predators; by no means tame, they still mostly ignore the crowds of people and vehicles teeming around their den and just go on being foxes. The fellow in charge of the Allen Centennial Gardens has noted that his lagomorph problem has been sharply reduced this season.The “donut bokeh” of the mirror lens really stands out in the background of this one.
What? Oh, you mean this spine?
NOM NOM NOM!
Adults on the wing within a few hundred meters of the nest:
Here’s what all the squirrel-disassembling was about:
Nobody argues with Mom:
But one must occasionally get a good flap in while she’s gone.
My wife captions this one “I am SO TOTALLY NOT drunk, man!”
After I sent you the May email [photos below sent Sept. 16], I returned to the nest site — heck, it’s right across the street from my office! — for more images as the chicks grew up:
Rick also put up video of the two hawk chicks, titled “In Which Our Hero Mistakes His Sister’s Foot for A Piece of Squirrel.“
Very cool, lucky you!
Sub
Last year we had a hawk plop down next to a neighbor’s house and eat a caught squirrel. I took my kid out to see it. That was the only time I’ve seen that behavior though – our area is urban enough that we typically don’t even see nests, just them flying around way overhead.
Nice shots. Missing the money shot while looking at your camera is called “aping”. 🙂
Once while getting out of the car in a parking lot that was bordered by woods, I was startled by loud kerfuffle in a sapling that stood close by the edge of the blacktop. It was a gray squirrel tearing down the tree at top speed, with a red-tailed hawk diving at it again and again, trying mightily to get its talons into said rodent. As soon as that squirrel hit the ground, it zipped right under the closest car and stayed put! There was clearly no way that hawk was going to get it under there. All the squirrel had to do was sit tight and outwait the hawk, which sure enough flew away empty-clawed after a little while. Who says animals can’t learn?
Thank you for the wonderful pictures. I try to force myself not to be too sentimental about the cute baby birds and to remember that they are little predators, but, oh my, they are so darling!
This is the light morph subspecies(B. j. harlani), sometimes called Harlan’s Hawk.
Thanks Stephen, I thought they were awfully light colored (at least compared to my local red tails).
Yes, thanks. The red tail was very obvious and no other NA hawk that I know of has that, but I was puzzled by the paleness of the body plumage.
Just as with the fox den, the “awww” reaction is somewhat tempered by the flies buzzing around the nest (as in the last frame).
Once fledged and out of the nest, the young ‘uns were very, very vocal about the sudden dropoff of regular meal delivery. Or so I imagine, based on their INCESSANT eep-eep-eeping for weeks on end.
Thanks for the ID Stephen!
I imagine we’ll be back next year, if Prof. CC is up for it; the hawks’ve been using that nest for several seasons now. And, yeah, lucky doesn’t half cover it — there’s also a perennial peregrine falcon family on my bike-commute route, and some Coopers Hawks living four doors down from me.
Some pix of last year’s campus hawk fledgling sitting around trying to figure out flight, plus a few of the peregrines, plus the Coopers:
https://picasaweb.google.com/109538850134749389849/MadisonRaptors2013FalconsRedtailsCoopersHawk?authuser=0&feat=directlink
Peregrine chicks, plus some other assorted birds:
https://picasaweb.google.com/109538850134749389849/BirdsAndWildlifePeregrineFalconsGeeseAndMore?authuser=0&feat=directlink
At first I read that you had a perennial falcon family on your bike…Now that would be quite something, and possibly awkward to ride;-)
Nice family 🙂