Today is Tuesday August 3, and neither the neighbors or myself have seen either of the adults or young hawks flying or near the nest or by the field or anywhere else around the neighborhood. Possibly they are moving out to learn how to hunt. I thought they might use the hay field for this for a longer period of time, but once the hay bales were gone we have not seen the hawks hunting in the field. Below are a couple of photos and a report on my last sightings last weekend. It was interesting to hear the call they were both making. Possibly trying to attract one of the adults back to the area. But we did not see this happen.
On Saturday afternoon about 5 PM, July 31, we walked by the hay field and could see no evidence of the adult or young hawks. By this time the farmer had picked up almost all of the hay bales, leaving only a few broken ones in the field. However, we could hear a hawk making a loud chirping noise nearby and finally located one of the young hawks high in a pine tree in the shade across the street from the field. It moved around a little and I was able to get one photograph of its tail. We also walked by the nest area and the favorite perching trees that the hawks have been using for the past two months and could not see them or hear any hawk like sounds.
Click on the image to get a larger view!
On Sunday, August 1 about noon I again went past the field and with binoculars could see no evidence of any of the hawk family. A few minutes later I walked past the nest area and could see and hear one of the young hawks in the nest. It was making the same loud chirping noises as the one near the field the day before. But there were no other hawks in sight nor could I hear any other hawk sounds.
Click on the image to get a larger view!
Click on the image to get a larger view!
There is a possibility that these might be the last photos we will be able to get of this Swainson's Hawk Family that has been living in our neighborhood for more than two months, since about mid April. This blog and the photo album contains a fairly good record of this interesting time period. Please tell your friends and neighbors about the Swainson's Hawk Watch blog and enjoy over
500 album photographs in the coming months and years.