My 6th consecutive year of documenting a family of Swainson’s hawks.
This is their story (and mine) through my lens.
They were playfully hanging out on a rooftop and on the power poles in the area.
Such a privilege to be able to sit and watch these juveniles become the majestic birds of prey that they are.
Also, it will never not be funny to me watching these birds run.
I’ve been watching the lighter coloured baby a lot. Or rather, this particular bird happens to be around a lot when I’ve been out to the area. And to be honest, some of the photos I have of this one hawk are some of the best I have ever taken.
I also try to get as many pictures as I can of the 3 of them together.
I took some video also but without my tripod, therefore the footage is clear but shaky. I will work on the best ones to see if I can smooth things out.
By the way, I share some of those photos here but not the best ones and not the highest resolution. Those photos will be used in another future project.
Despite my concern about Mama, I did manage to get some videos of the babies – with the tripod! I’m trying to figure out the best way to share some of those videos, so stay tuned on that.
“Bird watching is my happy place”
We happened to be at the right place at the right time – it was feeding time and I got almost all of it on video. Suffice to say, both Mama, Papa and all 3 babies were around.
As soon as I walked around the corner and looked up, there was Mama hawk at the top of our tree, the crows and magpies swarming and swooping around her. I ran to get my camera. As soon as I got back and aimed it at her, she took off. That’s when I saw it. She had a bird in her talons. Unfortunately, my camera had slipped into a different setting (other than Manual) and the shots that I did manage to get were not good at all.
The rest of the story is that Mama took the dead bird over to the hill. I just managed to capture the drop once she got there and a couple of shots of her hanging in the air while looking down. It was obvious this was food for one of the babies. The photos were horrible but what a story!
By this time in the season, the babies have made their way to the playground. They are very curious. They also practice being the raptors they are through intimidation. It was so much fun watching these two trying to one-up each other.
I also took my first hawk poop action freeze frame shot – not entirely on purpose. I mean, I could see what was coming by baby’s posturing and I was already setup and taking shots anyway, so…
It doesn’t necessarily mean that we don’t see them again before they migrate – in past years I have seen them around up until mid-September. It just means that this is the day of the last photographic evidence of their stay in the neighbourhood.
Project Hawk is not a scientific journal. However, I am fully aware that once the birds have left the nest, they aren’t “babies” anymore – they would more accurately be called fledglings & juveniles. I use baby/babies/young ones/littles/juveniles interchangeably throughout Project Hawk when referring to the offspring of Mama & Papa Swainson’s hawks