Enraptured by Raptors

 

Turkey Vulture

Bald Eagle

Red-tailed Hawk

Red-shouldered Hawk

Cooper's Hawks

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Merlin

Kestrel

All these birds were photographed within or passing over college campuses a few minutes walk from my home. I am amazed every day by the variety of birds in this small green space – one of very few that has so far escaped development.

 

 

The Hawks Are Safe And Flying!

One of the parents enjoying a puddle bath

As you may recall, in April I reported that the Cooper’s Hawks were nesting again this year in the Saint-Laurent Cemetery. See post here.

Since then, however, a number of things happened that caused me to fear for the safety of the baby hawks.  In early June I noticed red ribbons on each of two trees flanking the “hawk tree”.  This meant that those trees were slated for felling. This became an urgent issue because the trees could be cut down at any time and there were nestlings at this point.  These adjacent trees were so close that their branches over-lapped with those of the hawk’s tree, and therefore the felling of them (with the big trucks, commotion and loud noises) could make the parents abandon the nest. 

I immediately wrote a letter to the cemetery administration explaining the location of the nest and my concerns.  I received no reply for several days so I sent a follow up letter with photos of the occupied nest and asked a good friend, Georges Dupras, to write as well.  Georges went one step further and copied the mayor of Saint-Laurent, Alan DeSousa.  With neither my letters nor Georges’ getting a reply from the cemetery, the mayor assigned the issue to a city planning advisor, Jacinthe Daprato, for action.

In the meantime, I discovered that there were five nestlings!  This information and more details were passed on to Ms Daprato and I was very pleased to learn on July 5th that the cemetery had been instructed by the city to leave all trees standing until mid-August in order to protect these birds.

Her reply to me (translated from the French) stated in part: “After discussions with the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks, and under the law on the conservation and development of wildlife, the nest must be protected until the young are able to fly and leave the nest.”

I am happy to report that all five young hawks are now adult size and flying well.  They still rely on their parents for food however, and come back to the nest for feeding.

I hope you will enjoy these photos (click to enlarge) and will be as pleased as I am for the happy ending to this saga thanks to all those involved.

A nestling on June 19th

A parent and young hawk on June 24th

One of the young hawks on June 27th

The youngsters are now "branching" 

(going onto branches and exercising their wings)

July 3rd

Three of the fledglings on July 14th

A portrait of a young hawk

July 14th

More stretching of wings!

July 14th

Sitting majestically!

July 16th

 

Three More Videos of the Hawk Nestlings

For another look at the nestlings, here are three new "Cooper's Hawk with nestlings" videos:

Video 1 - click here. 

 One nestling preens and at the end another little head pops up and yawns. (31 seconds)

Video 2 - click here.

Nestlings jostle about in the nest on a windy day. I see at least three distinct heads and maybe a fourth? (21 seconds)

Video 3 - click here.

Parent feeds the nestlings. (24 seconds)

A New Cooper's Hawk Family

If you are a regular reader of this blog you know that a pair of Cooper's Hawks took up residence in a cemetery here in Saint-Laurent. 

After occupying a nest high in a conifer, they abandoned it, and several days later, started building a new one in a deciduous tree in another area of the cemetery.  I have been monitoring their activities ever since I first spotted them and to my delight, they have successfully hatched out nestlings.  

Here are a few photos and a very short video.   

This nest and these hardy birds have weathered two strong wind/rain storms and a construction crew working on a building only a few meters from the tree!

Note: captions are below each photo.  You can enlarge a photo by clicking on it.

Starting the process!

A portrait of a handsome bird!

How cute is that little face?!

One nestling is on the left and there is a partial view of another on the far right.

Sitting in the nest!

Baby and parent.

To see a 25 second video, click here.

Stay tuned!

The Cooper's Hawks are still around!

Just a quick update to say that the hawks have been sighted again!  They are at the very back of the cemetery (where it is harder to photograph) but hopefully they will remain and make a new nest.

To celebrate, I thought I would share a photo of a Cooper's Hawk that I took several years ago in a stream in Mount Royal Cemetery.

Broad-winged Hawks

As mentioned in a previous post, I found (or, I should say, several crows found) an immature Broad-winged Hawk that I was able to photograph.  

Well, a few days later in the same place, the crows alerted me again to a Broad-winged Hawk.  Then, as I observed it, a second one flew into an adjacent tree!  Here they are below.

The crows were adamant to chase them off and there was quite an aerial display!  I managed to get the following action shots before both hawks flew off with the crows in pursuit:

I keep returning to the area (not much choice with the pandemic directives these days) but have never seen them since (as of two weeks now).

On a sad note (for me that is), the Cooper's Hawks from my previous post seem to have moved away without raising any young.  I was seeing them every day that I went looking and now it has been six days with no sightings.  I've checked the nest and it seems abandoned.  It has left me feeling bereft.  I think my emotions are very much on the surface these days with all the tragedy related to COVID-19 and sadness is a default frame of mind ... 

Close encounters of the hawk kind.

Recently I had the extraordinary experience of spending well over half an hour sitting between two low slung trees at the Montreal Botanical Gardens while surrounded by four young Cooper's Hawks.

These hawks (along with the two parents) have been drawing dozens of photographers to the Gardens and sometimes there seem to be more tripods than trees!

That being said, I was extremely lucky to have had such a long time alone with the foursome. I was able to squat down and waddle slowly (such an elegant gait) up to each bird until I was within 3 to 4 feet.

The reason I could do this was based on a few factors: the birds have been raised in a place that brings them in close contact with humans; they are young and more trusting than the wiser adults; and one was eating its prey which meant the others were waiting for their opportunity to get a share and I was the least of their concerns.

I took hundreds of photos constantly changing settings, angles, flash versus no flash, etc. and here are some of the best results.

Here is a 28 second video. I get a chill each time the hawk seems to look directly at me!