Redtail pair watches over CoHo

You may have noticed the lone hawk sitting in one of the twin towers early in the mornings. Or you may have seen one circling over the cemetery and floating over the buildings of Coho. For the longest time, I could not tell what variety of hawk it could be. Early in the morning, with the bright background, it was difficult to see details in his feathers, and I never caught him flying away from the tree. At times, I could swear I heard the cry of a redtail near the orchard, but never saw the bird, which caused me to wonder if I was just hearing things. Yesterday he appeared with a partner, sitting in the twin towers. The smaller bird had her back to Coho, the larger bird, on his customary perch, sat facing west. The new bird’s back feathers seemed dark and hard to read. However, her tail was on the short, square side. His tail was not visible from the side. She flew off to the west.

This morning they appeared on the same branches together facing Coho and the cloud cover made it easier to see their light colored breasts with a faint darker bar across the middle, and distinctive dark heads. They are looking like for-real redtail hawks. When the smaller bird flew away from the perch to the west, she flew to a nest in a tree in the neighborhood, a block or so away. I later saw her fly away from the nest, down towards Sunshine Corner gardens. Unless she was conducting a raid on a squirrels’ nest, we may have redtail chicks to look forward to this spring!

Not a great photo, just the best we could do with our little cameras.