It all started with a pair of red-tailed hawks doing what came naturally, only instead of settling in some sylvan Oregon country treetop, these tough little guys built their nest on the fire escape of a building in Portland. And Big Brother in the form of the WBG-Audobon webcam trained an electronic eye on them from the moment their three chicks were born.
My Oregon antique dealer friend Sue sent me the link, and invited me to watch this little family grow up, at least to the point where the chicks were ready to fly out of the nest. Right, I thought, this is interesting but checking in on them every day would be a lot like watching grass grow. I'm a busy woman, you know. So I didn't see them squabbling over a bit of food when they were fuzzy chick-like creatures.
But then a few days ago Sue let me know that the runt of the nest had died, as we suspected he might because the parents were definitely favoring his two more robust sibs. I was surprised at how sad I felt, even though the littlest hawk probably had Trichomoniasis, a bird disease common among pigeons that would have shortened his life anyway. The parents, being the practical unemotional type, promptly fed him to his nestmates.
Already almost the size of the parents, the two survivors, Sue reports, are now very busy preening their flight feathers for the big day, when they're going to get their first flying lesson. Big Brother won't be catching all their aerial antics, only their tentative takeoffs and breathless "Woo hoo, I made it!" landings, but it should still be interesting. Sue might be away from her computer on the big day, so I promised to keep an eye on them and let her know how it went. Here's the link for the live webcam feed, if you'd like to join me.
The webcam also won't be able to follow the babies when they adapt to flight, learn to hunt and survive. The first year is the hardest, according to the Audubon Society, and around 60% of red-tail fledglings don't make it.
All this brought back a song I remember my long-departed friend Kate Wolf sing years ago, and when I looked it up, there it was.