Gracias, Mark, nice to get feedback. And thank you Chuck. Just to be clear my first photos were in my yard, the second post was from Maccauley and labeled “Swainson Hawk.”
I’m not sure if it was the Swainson or an RT this a.m. that took out the kestrel nest in our front maple. We woke up to a ton of racket, lots of kestrel alarms, and upon leaving for our walk, a hawk flew out of the maple carrying what looked like nesting material and a nestling, which he casually ate for breakfast at the top of a utility pole while the kestrels mobbed him.
Typically the kestrels nest in a box here, but they moved into the maple this spring – this would be a second clutch, and now I’m afraid it’s gone. I didn’t know hawks would raid a kestrel nest. Dang…
That’s a young Swainson’s Hawk – possibly a dark morph. The heavy, tear-drop shaped spots on a tawny background are typical of juveniles of darker Swainson’s. But the real clincher is the small, delicate feet – RTHA has much larger feet.
The white face is what I was looking at… but Chuck, keep talking to me. I’m not convinced… only amazed how close I could get. I was comparing with this and others in the MacCaulay library. In flight there was no red in the tail, but I kept staring at the beak… also all around it just seemed a tad bit smaller than a red tail.
Meant to chime in earlier – had a whining Swainson in a neighboring field last weekend, with what looked to be two adults perched up in the nearby poplars. Then today, upon pulling into our driveway, was a juvenile perched by our newly mown meadow. Not shy at all, he let me get fairly close. He pounced on something that must have escaped, then took off for the trees. What a dapper gent.
Seeing and hearing Swainson’s in our west Boise hood atop tall evergreens, but at Eagle Island State Park recently three were right above me, close, in cottonwoods screaming bloody murder
Hummer report for our yard…..
looks, sounds, feels like we’re about at peak migration? with our expected three species, nearly all Black-chins, occasional Calliope, and an immature male? Rufous trying to claim our back yard
10-20-30 hums total ? and we’re just trying to avoid the crossfire 😉
I’m still hearing young Swainson’s Hawks calling for mom and dad to bring them food. And they seem to like perching in the top of evergreens. Red-tails, on the other hand, seem to be beyond that stage.
Tom McCabe, Boise
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