When I drove into the Bluff last week, this fellow was sitting on a bench by the driveway.  It seemed unconcerned even though I was only about fifteen feet from it.  Hawks are usually pretty shy and I was afraid there was something wrong with it.  As I parked I saw it fly from the bench and land on the ground by some bear grass about 50 feet away.  He then started chasing after the numerous grasshoppers around.  Again I thought there must be something wrong with it and it was sustaining itself by eating grasshoppers since it couldn’t do better for whatever reason.

Later I spoke to WCB director Victoria Saker who told me wildlife rehabber Stephanie Oravetz determined that there wasn’t anything wrong with it.  Rather, she speculated that it was a juvenile from a nest observed in the trees west of the Bluff.  It appears to be a Swainson’s hawk.  At least that’s the closest description I found in the field guide.

As Kari was headed out Monday afternoon to pick up Rebecca from tennis camp she noticed something on the ground underneath the hackberry by the driveway and realized it must be a bird nest.  It was a hot and windy day but she had no time to stop then.  Later when she returned with Li’l r she remembered the nest and sent Rebecca to inspect it.  Rebecca found it was sure enough a nest and there were two mostly naked chicks on the ground not far from it.   They gathered the checks, put them back in the nest and showed Joyce who told Rebecca to find me, which she did.

My track record with baby birds is not good, especially for ones so young, but I had to do something.  I felt their best chance was to return the nest to the tree and hope the parents would take it from there.  So I got a step ladder and looked for a suitable place in the tree to put the nest.  Did I mention it was a windy day?  I found a spot where I could wedge the nest in among some small branches but I didn’t feel confident it would stay put in the wind.  It was late in the day and darkness was approaching so we didn’t stay around to see what happened.

The next morning the nest was still in the tree and I saw an adult robin perched on a limb at the top of the smallish tree.  That was encouraging but not definitive.  Later Joyce and Kari were standing beneath the tree speculating whether the chicks survived their time on the ground.  They didn’t think so in spite of the fact the adults seemed to have found the nest.  As they were considering the odds of the chicks surviving, two little punkin heads popped up from the nest to confirm the chicks had survived their big adventure.

The pictures above were taken the following Sunday evening.  I climbed a ladder to take the picture of the nest which was remarkably well made.  When I tried to hold the camera above the nest to get a shot of the chicks they got shrieked and made a run for it.  They had grown considerably in only a week.  Joyce and I corralled the chicks and returned them to the nest while the adults scolded us.  When Rebecca first brought me the nest with the chicks in it, I thought they were little mockingbirds or maybe bluejays because of their coloring.  Now they look like little robins.