A pair of hawks nested high in a tree down by the pond. I’ve watched them floating in the breeze above the lower field. This has been their home for several years.
The storm, the derecho that fell on our property in July was a bad turn for the hawks. Last week my brother Keevyn was down on a short vacation (while he fished I worked with chainsaw and tractor, clearing about a dozen downed trees from the dam road).
That morning there was a single hawk around the pond. He sounded like he was calling. It was a pitiful forlorn cry. And he stayed at it most of the day.
Keevyn said that one of the downed trees had a really big nest in it. He climbed the hill to investigate. And he came back with these:
It’s not easy to tell from the photo… but these are egg shells.
So the hawk lost his nest, his eggs, and maybe his mate. Actually I’m not all that sure whether the lone hawk was the falcon or the male. I’m guessing that the female went down with the nest.
Today I was down dragging ruined trees off the road, again. And there was no sign or sound of any hawk.
Priorities
Things have gotten so crazy that I find myself prioritizing my work. It’s a thing I used to do back when I had a real job. I’m sorry to say that the blog is a bit too low on the list. I’ve had some great stories to tell but have had to content myself with being the solitary witness.
I’ll try to break away a time or two this week to catch you up. It’s late now.
Blog857
Questions comments & impassioned speeches to Bud Houston Houston.Bud@gmail.com. The web store is up and running. www.dogagility.org/newstore. I have five volumes (over 100 pp each) of The Joker’s Notebook available on my web-store at an inexpensive price. These are lesson plans suitable for individual or group classes for teaching dog to work at a distance.
Bud Houston's Blog 
August 5, 2012 at 1:18 am
Unless you found a dead hawk or body parts associated with the eggs, then all was probably not lost….since the tree fell in late July the young hawks probably already hatched and fledged. But the whole family will use the nest and nest tree after fledging as a roosting and gathering spot. It could be that the lone hawk was a young hawk calling for it’s parents trying to get them to feed it. In my area, there is a young red-tailed hawk that’s been screaming and chasing it’s parents most of the day this week demanding that it be fed…which they are clearly trying to avoid!
August 6, 2012 at 1:37 pm
Thanks for that Kim… it makes me feel much better. I’m sorry they lost their nest; but I’m optimistic now that the family survived. Of course they’re welcomed to continue using the property for their home base. They just need to find a new tree.
August 7, 2012 at 9:37 am
Yes, this time of year we have juvenile hawks that keen a lot for their parents for food. They often sit in the big trees in my backyard and yell, making me nervous (with me owning tiny dogs and all). Saw an awesome sight the other day while out walking of the 2 parent hawks going after a bald eagle with something in its talons, I assumed the eagle poached it from the hawks? They were harassing it like the crows harass the hawks and the eagle was flying low to avoid the blows.