Welcome to the Swainson's Hawk Watch

In April of 2010, a pair of wild Swainson's Hawks decided to nest in our neighborhood in Boise, Idaho. This "Hawk Watch" will attempt to record words and photographs describing the Hawks behaviors, including the hatching & fledgling of chicks over the spring and summer. Many others who live in the neighborhood also watched the daily activities of the hawks and used this blog to keep up on my own observations and photographs.

Note! May 6, 2011 Two Red-Tailed Hawks have settled on the old nest and appear to be laying on eggs now. See blog posts below.

Note! On March 12, 2011 two neighbors reported seeing a single hawk flying around and landing on the nest. Hopefully they will nest here again or nearby and we can continue the blog through 2011.
Note! Please Try to "Follow" the Blog and check in often. I am trying to update this site and the photo album at least once or twice a week. This page scrolls down to the blog entries below this introduction. The first blog entry you will see is the latest one. Scrolling the page down will reveal earlier posts in descending chronological order. And/or you can use the Blog Archive on the right side of the screen to see entries for May, through October 2010 and newer ones for 2011.
Please feel free to share this Blog with your family and friends. The URL you can email to them is:
http://swainsonshawkwatch.blogspot.com

Note ! I am posting "all" of the hawk images to an album in my Picasa Web account. Below is the web URL for that album. You can click on that hot link and/or also click on the Hawk lifting off branch photo to go to that album. As of October 3, there are 600 individual images in the album.

Note! When looking at a single photo in the album use the "full screen" icon for a larger, more impressive size!

Hawk lifting off branch

Saturday, July 17, 2010

1st Hawk Chick to Fly has come Back to Nest

In the evening of July 15, I see that both hawk chicks are back at the nest with the female hawk.

On July 14 about 8:30 PM , a few neighbors actually saw the 1st Hawk Chick fly out of the nest and land awkwardly on a pine tree, then fly on to the tree where I first saw the young hawk several minutes later.  It stayed in that tree until I left at dusk.  And, I did not see this young hawk again on the nest or anywhere else until the evening of July 15.

Click on the image for a larger view!


Click on the image for a larger view!

One of the young hawks got out on a limb and flapped its wings, but did not try to fly.
Click on the image for a larger view!

Finally the sun started setting and the hawks seemed to settle in for the night.
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