 While Ward and June may be taking a year off, their neighbors the Cooper's
Hawks have been busy at work. They have constructed a huge nest sixty feet up in a pine
tree and are now incubating their eggs. On my first visit to the nesting area (just a few
hundred yards from Ward and June's) I was greeted with the same loud kek-kek-kek call that one of them used to try
to intimidate Theodore last summer. They have since gotten used to my presence in the area
and completely ignore me. While there are many things that intrigue me about this fierce
predator, the most puzzling for now is the immature appearance of the hawk that has been
doing most or all of the incubating. I can find only one account of such behavior by
cooper's hawks and this was A. C. Bent's story of an immature bird taking over for a
mature female that had been shot. As I continue to observe their behavior, I hope to
provide more insight into this and many of the other secrets of this pair of hawks. |
