Swainson's Hawk Watch: Empty Swainson's Hawk Nest in Sycamore Tree

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.

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!

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Empty Swainson's Hawk Nest in Sycamore Tree

As of today, I have not seen any of the Swainson's Hawk family members near the nest, or the favorite perching tree or near the hay field. A few times we have heard hawk sounds above or near our house but have not seen them. Probably we will see one or more of the hawks soaring in the sky in the next several weeks before they start their migration. If I get a chance I will try to photograph them in the neighborhood. I also play to visit the Idaho Bird Observatory research site located at Lucky Peak, the southernmost peak on the Boise Foothills Ridge. The web site (hot link with directions above) notes that the best time to see the Hawk Watch migration and Hawk Banding program is September through the first week of October.

Note! during the spring and summer I did shoot some High Definition video of the Hawks in and around the nest. As time permits this fall I plan to edit several sequences showing different aspects of their behaviors and sounds and post them on this blog site. Visit once in a while to see these video pieces as I get them ready.

Two photographs below show the Sycamore Tree where the Swainson's Hawks raised the two chicks this summer. As noted in an earlier blog pose here the cold wet spring weather inhibited the early leaf growth of Sycamores in Boise. As the summer progressed more leaves appeared, but we always had a good view of the nest because of the hole in the leaves. These photos show the whole top of the tree with the nest area visible an a closer shot of the hole in the leaves as it now exists. Unfortunately, we may not see the hawks in the nest again this year. There is a pretty good chance the adult hawks will come back and try to use the nest again next spring.