Swainson's Hawk Watch: 20 Swainson's Hawks Soar Over Summer 2010 Nest Area

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.

http://picasaweb.google.com/gogrimm/SwainsonSHawksNesting#

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

Sunday, October 3, 2010

20 Swainson's Hawks Soar Over Summer 2010 Nest Area

This morning about 10:AM a neighbor called me to report that she had just seen about 20 hawks soaring over the neighborhood nesting area. She reported that they began to soar towards the east as she watched and called me. I hurried over to the area and to a view to the east toward the foothills with my camera, but did not see the hawks. I also went over to the hayfield, but did not see them there either.

Today, or in the next few days, I might try to go up to the Idaho Bird Observatory, where they are reporting seeing some hawks every day.

Meanwhile, I found two photos I took of a Swainsons hawk flying nearby while we were in the Bear Valley area before we visited Dagger Falls on the Middle Fork of the Salmon River last July 4. I will post these below.