Reason for a Change-Mitch’s Blog

There is a family of hawks living in the woods behind Bryan Hall on campus, the 2 juvenilles have been calling for a couple of weeks. They fly from branch to branch and tree to trees. I watch seen parents fly in, and once saw one feeding on a limb. Today I was following them around trying to shoot a picture when I heard a swooshing and turned to see an adult hit the bricks in a flurry of feathers, and then take off. David, and IT guy at Chemistry was sitting on the observatory steps and saw the whole thing as the hawk came hurtling through the bushes to grab an unwary cardinal.

There has been a marked decline in rodent population in the “fertile crescent”, which is normally filled with rabbits, chipmunks, and other rodents. The birds are much quiter too, maybe because of the constant calling of the juvenilles.

My problem was identification, by the juvenille call I first heard, I thought a red-shouldered hawk. Then I heard the adults sounding like red-tailed hawks, but the the juvenille tail feathers were white striped! I at first guessed Sharp-shinned, and a guy from Sweden I met in the woods thought maybe Cooper’s Hawk, but I just didn’t have enough experience to tell. I wrote to Dawn Hewitt at the HT, and she felt pretty sure it was a Cooper’s Hawk, as they have been known to nest in the area in years past.

Next day:
They seem to be gone, not calling in the trees.