Swainson's Hawk Watch: Young Hawk Perched on Power Pole and Flew to Hay Field to Hunt

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!

Friday, August 6, 2010

Young Hawk Perched on Power Pole and Flew to Hay Field to Hunt

This evening it was cloudy and dark about sunset. I did not see any hawks by the nest. However, as I was using binoculars to look over the field I suddenly heard a hawk nearby. One of the young hawks had landed on a power pole just 30 yards from where I was standing. I got closer and watched it for awhile while it preened and stretched and took a poop. I took a few hand held telephoto lens shots without much light. Even though they are dark, these may be the last close up photos I will get of the young hawks. I will post a few of them here and a few more in the photo album.

Click on the image for a larger view!

When the young hawk flew off from the pole it went right down into the field and started moving around on the ground. I assume it was hunting grasshoppers. I could hear another hawk in the distance and suddenly I saw it fly across the field and right over the young hawk that was hunting. I have a very dark photo of this second hawk as it flew by and the light color in the forefront underwing makes it appear to be the the male parent. The young hawk quit hunting and just stood still for about 5 minutes. I could hear the other hawk in the distance during this time. Finally the young hawk started hunting on the ground again. It was so far away and it was almost dark that my photos may not be worth putting up here. I will look at them closely as soon as I can and post any useable ones. It was great to see that the young hawks are still around and learning how to hunt and feed themselves.