I have a hawk's nest in a tall pine which I can see
from our bedroom
window. I watched the hawks court, mate, & build their
nest, with
the male bringing his mate a beautiful "most perfect" vine that
was used to
be lovingly woven around the border at the very top.
The eggs were laid, and
the parents took turns sitting on the nest, and
when they hatched they
each brought food to the chicks.
Only one hawk at a time comes now, and I
believe it is now only the
female, though I could certainly be
wrong. At first I saw only one baby, and with
a mother's eyes I
proclaimed that chick, bald & naked as he was, to be the
most awesome
& beautiful creature ever created. Low and behold, I
later
saw what turned out to be another chick. Wonder of
wonders!
They are now perched on the very edge of the nest, which is
refreshed
daily with the tender leaves & branches from new growth of
our Royal Poinciana
tree. They stretch their sparsely feathered wings
and stare for hours
from their perch at the wondrous surroundings that
they will meet head on only
too soon.
What a miracle!
What a beautiful thing! How totally humbling to be in
the presence
of such a creature Mother Nature created. Awesome! I am
honored
to have witnessed this miracle!
And I feel just as humbled and
awed with the birth of each puppy. Despite
us, or because of us, or
whatever the case may be... just as it has
happened from the beginning of
time!
It is now Saturday before mother's day. My
heart is in my throat as I
only see one baby in the nest. But when the
mother comes to bring the
evening meal, I see one chick out on a limb and he
jump/flaps down into
the nest to demand his share of dinner.
The next day,
Mother's Day appropriately enough, the second chick also
leaves the nest and
perches precariously out on a small limb where he
remains most of the
day. The other chick is bolder now, hopping down
branch to branch and
then climbing up to the top and jump/flapping down to
the nest.
At
dinnertime, a special treat. The mother brings the meal and off in
the
distance I hear the cries of another hawk. It is her mate, who
comes in
and watches the two offspring precariously climb back out of the
nest and
he perches on the rim joyfully proclaiming to the world the
exceptional
prowess of his very own chicks. Caught up in the
celebration, the female
also perches on the edge and joins in. Soon all
four are telling the
world what wondrous things happened with the family
today! As the sun
sets, both male and female fly off into the distance
until tomorrow.
I have discovered a morbid streak in myself I didn't
know
existed. Perhaps I should call it my anthropologist inner
self. I have
now become "The Bone Collector". Under a large tree
in the front yard I
have found what remains of the prey used to feed the baby
chicks. Before
our drought, I found walking catfish and crayfish
shells. I have began
collecting & cataloging these
remains.
One day, horrified, I saw one parent in that tree calling to the
chicks
with a specially enticing incentive to leave the nest, a
squirrel. Now I
have spend much time & money taming the squirrels
to come to my bird
feeder for my hand held peanuts, but I didn't expect one
to become bird
feed himself! However, the bone collection now sports 4
snake skeletons,
so I must take the bad with the good.
The bolder of
the two babies is getting more daring. He makes much
stronger, bolder
wing flappings and I go out later in the day to find him
in another
tree. This causes the mother great concern as both chicks are
clamoring
for food. She flies into the nest, which the second chick hops
down
into. But she sees the other chick on a neighboring tree, and all
her
cries and enticing meals can not make him attempt to fly that
distance
again. She finally brings the meal to him, and she tears off
bits to feed
him then flies into the nest and leaves the rest. Although
I did not see
it, the next morning, briefly, both chicks were in the
nest. Later in the
day, the chicks were each in a different
tree.
I were patrolling the front yard when Cruise, ever the guardian
and
protector from all things evil started an "alert" barking in the
back
yard. It sounded like he had found a turtle, and after the last
turtle
grabbed Clover on the lip causing a painful bite, I hurried back to
check
it out. No matter how sneakily I scurried, the other 3 were
clamoring
ahead of me to see what excitement Cruise had stirred up.
When I saw the
source of his barking, my heart froze. There on the
ground was the
baby. He had no fear of us, despite Cruise's best
efforts to "Flush" this
bird he stood his ground gazing at us with unblinking
eyes. All the dogs
charged the obstinate creature who MUST be
flushed, and he still stood his
ground. At that point, it is utter
chaos. All 4 dogs are barking, I am
screaming at them and then Cruise
decides to take matters into his own
paws. He charged the poor infant,
and I made one last clamoring scream to
"FLY" and it managed to become
airborne just clearing my fence.
necessary after all.
The parent bird comes less often now, and I
have since noticed her
training method. She encourages them to fly tree
to tree with her catch
of the day, and the hunting lessons have
started. She flies with her
catch to the ground, and the bigger one
follows. Several times now
amongst much screeching, the babies
have both been on the ground, the one
with the prey hoarding it, and
extending his wings to claim his prize.
sounds like an adult, and he calls constantly from his tree.
been so dry they have had to look elsewhere for food? But off in
the
distance, ever so faintly, I hear a cry, and then an
answer.....