A short story about how I first encountered Red-shouldered hawks, found a nest and watched these amazing birds.
Ever since I was a young birder, I was extremely interested in birds of prey. Some have mixed feelings to put it mildly, about birds that eat lizards, fish, snakes, rodents and even other birds. I was always more interested in the speed and agility of these birds. Their eyesight is incredible, and considering their size it is even more incredible how agile they can be when hunting or when avoiding pesky blue jays, crows or mockingbirds.
The first time that I can remember seeing a hawk as a child, and there were actually two of them circling overhead. I used to spend a lot of time outdoors playing in creeks, fishing for bream and crawfish. It was early Spring and the hawks were barely above the tree tops calling to each other and circling while they looked for a meal.
Over the next few weeks I would fish the same creek several times, and I kept hearing this pair of hawks. Eventually I was lucky enough to discover their nesting location. They flew over head on one specific afternoon and I watched one fly up to a tall tulip poplar tree growing up right along the bank of the creek. The other perched nearby and was carrying a branch in its beak. They were finishing the nest!
I was able to see them well enough at this point to recognize that they were Red-shouldered hawks. These are the second largest hawks in the Southeast (only the Red-tailed hawk is larger). They are very, very vocal and it’s easy to know they’re in the area by their loud repeated calls.
My Dad has an a pretty old Pentax camera he bought while in the Navy (1968-70 timeframe) , and has a few lenses and filters. I knew where he kept it and took it to hawk watch several times. I had some cheap camouflage from an army navy surplus store that was basically a bit of canvas fabric with leaf print/pattern. I slowly and quietly walked along the creek banks and climbed up to the base of a sizeable tree trunk adjacent to the tall poplar tree and sat motionless, waiting for them to return.
I was able to visit several times in the following weeks and saw them carry back squirrels on multiple occasions and a rabbit once also. The top of the nest seemed to have a lot of fluffy down feathers (or maybe fur) strewn about. It is hard to say at this point in time due to the vintage camera and limited telephoto options. I also had a pair of Nikon Lookout III 10x50mm binoculars which were actually far superior in lense quality at the time to the Pentax camera. These gave me the best views I had.
At the back portion of our property there is a small stand of tall Pine trees, it turns out the hawks found a perfect spot and built a nest right along the fence line, likely around 40 feet up in the tree. If memory serves me, I think this was actually late March thru early April for the nest construction phase. They had a couple of young and we were able to snap some photos from our back door 80-90ft away with my Nikon P610 camera. They aren’t great photos but I will post a few up for you anyway.
This pair only nest here one season, and it seemed like our resident pair of crows were constantly antagonizing these hawks and eventually drove them out.
I also saw Blue Jays, Northern Mockingbirds harassing the hawks and a brave squirrel that attempted to climb up into the nest and attempt to sabotage it. You read that correctly… Grey squirrels are known to exhibit this behavior. They will climb up into a hawk nest and push out the eggs or break them, which is likely some sort of survival instinct of theirs.
Thanks for reading and please let me know if you enjoyed this post and the photos. Also feel free to comment if you have a story about Red-shouldered hawks that you’d like to share!