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

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Young Hawks Alone Making Loud Calls

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.
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