It’s difficult to know what’s going on at the Riverside nest. Behavior has changed, with the mother sitting high up on the nest and spending time on the edge of the nest.
If this was May, we’d all suspect that her eggs had hatched. But in July, is it just the 100+ degree weather? These photographs were taken over the last three days.
It’s been at least 30 days since the Riverside female started sitting on her nest with her second clutch. It’s hard to figure out when she actually laid her eggs, since Red-tails often start sitting on their nests a few days before they start laying their eggs, so calculating the exact hatch date is difficult. However, it should be any day now.
On Saturday, it hadn’t happened yet. No signs of a feeding, the mother leaving the nest alone for a few minutes, or an adoring pair of parents looking into the nest.
I went down to see how the Riverside Pair was doing on Sunday and got to see an exchange between the parents.
The Riverside Pair is nesting again. I hope this new clutch has better luck than the last three. Fledging will take place in mid-August!
In the high wind late today, the Riverside Park nest was destroyed and all three eyasses perished on Saturday in the late afternoon. Reports from fellow hawk watchers say the eyasses didn’t fall out of the nest, but fell with the falling nest. They died as soon as they hit the ground, so they died quickly.
The mother was seen looking where the nest had been, and then flew off. The father also came by the nest soon after the accident with a rat. The remains of the nest includes lining material and a half eaten pigeon.
Expect the parents to rebuild the nest, although it is likely that this replacement will not be used until next year, if at all. The parents were seen copulating on Sunday.
Leslie Day reminded me that two years ago, those eyasses also perished the day before Mother’s Day. This family seems to catch all the bad breaks.
This is just another reminder of the high mortality rate for Red-tailed Hawk babies. Over 70% die in their first year.
It was a calm evening when I arrived at the nest. We’re having a race at Riverside. Although the kids are getting bigger, the foliage seems to be outracing them. It’s frustrating for photographers and hawk watchers, but probably good for the hawks.
