Welcome to the Swainson's Hawk Watch

May 15, 2015 - A pair of Swainson's Hawks have been mating and building a new nest in a different neighborhood tree. I will try to start adding a few new 2015 photos of this pair as the summer progresses. (Scroll down on this page to see the 2015 blog posts in chronological order.)

July 3, 2015 - Sadly, the 3 chicks have fallen out of the nest and perished. This blog chronicles activities around the nest until this tragic event, with the July 3 post below the first you will read.

Note! These and additional photos (total = 154) are viewable in this Swainson's Hawks blog 2015 Picasa Web album.

Archive, May 2014 two Swainson's Hawks have been mating in a tree about a block from the old 2010 -2011 nest site. I have not seen them in a nest yet but have seen them mate three times in the same tree over a two day period.

Whenever possible I will try to post photos on this blog again this year, especially if we can identify the nest site where we can see the chicks growing and fledgling. Note! See the first photos below on the May 5, 2014 blog post below.

Archive 2010 & 2011.
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. Here is a link to 56 Red-tailed hawk photographs from 2011 I uploaded to my Picasa Web Album.

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

Hawk lifting off branch

Friday, June 4, 2010

Hawks probably have eggs in the nest.

Note!  The photo below was taken on April 24.
The female hawk has been laying down in the nest and almost invisible from the ground most of the time for about a month.   This indicates she is probably laying on 2 or 3 eggs.  The gestation period for Swainson's Hawks is about 35 days, consequently we should see the adults start to feed the young soon.
Click on the image above to see a much larger view.
Note that I have uploaded more photos showing the hawks around the nest to the Swainson's Hawk Picasa Web album.

The nest is in a Sycamore tree that  is still leafing out. Possibly the leaves will obscure this good view somewhat, but as the young hawks grow we should be able to see them, especially as they feed and later when they start flapping their wings to get ready to fly out of the nest.  Several years ago we helped the Peregrine fund produce an interactive web project describing Raptors including Swainsons Hawks - Habitat - Diet - Reproduction - Name & Interesting Facts.  Click on this link to read more.

FYI, The Peregrine Fund also provides a Webcam page now providing live video of 4 Peregrine Falcon chicks that have recently hatched in a nest on a building in downtown Boise.
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