We have another baby redtail!!!

I am so blessed to be able to share yet another baby Redtail Hawk with it's mated parents again this year! We have a nest which on a good day you can see them sitting on the edge of it....I have a picture of that somewhere, you can just see one of the adults heads peering up over the top of it when I figure out what I did with that photo I'll post it.

A few years ago when they were widening the roads around my neighborhood, they marked these huge, old trees for removal but with the help of a few neighbors we were able to save the trees and what a special gift it was when one became the home of a pair of mated Redtail Hawks. These birds are magnificent! There is a period of time when the baby now called a fledgling is on the ground for two weeks with the parents still feeding it and protecting it during day light, but it's left to fend for itself on the ground at night. It hasn't learned how to take flight yet, but it a necessary part of the birds developing skills. Last year one was killed during the night hours in our side yard, it broke our hearts but you have to let nature take its course sometimes.

So a few weeks ago I began hearing the calling of the Redtails and was able to spot the fledgling learning to take flight. Yesterday my son Jimmy was able to video one of the parents teaching to now flying fledgling how to raid the squirrels nests in one of our trees. I enjoy the squirrels too, but they have done some damage to the electrical wires on my husbands boat every summer that it is "Docked" (lol) in the driveway, and they also chewed through I don't know how many extension cords on our pools filter system......Cute lil buggers though!

So while my son Jimmy was video taping I ran to get my camera and snapped off a few shots of the fledgling hunting it's afternoon snack. I'll never get bored of these Hawks!

kmh 2006