This Red-Shouldered chick is almost ready to fledge.
The Red-Shouldered Hawk chick nest is accessible but not in a good range for pictures. Still, I want to show you a progression of photos.
March 6, 2019
Neighbors tell me about a new active nest.
Oh! I see a bird sitting low on the nest. I share this photo with a birding group. Reminding me of that music game show where contestants identify the name of a song in a few notes, I ask if anyone knows the type hawk in this photo. They do. Red-Shouldered.
March 31, 2019
I wait and wait looking up at this large nest to get a photograph for you. While waiting, I notice a Blue Jay.
Waiting is fruitful. I get a photograph that clearly proves its identity to me. (I believed my birding friends, however, it's nice to get more visual information.)
April 8, 2019
April 18, 2019
The adult parents in the nest.
One stays with the young chicks.
The other heads out to hunt, landing in a Southern Live Oak tree adjacent to the nest.
April 20, 2019
Adult flies in with a meal for the chicks.
I look up and chick peeks out.
May 14, 2019
This dinner might make some viewers squirm. A squirrel? What do you think?
However, it could be a rabbit because Woodlawn neighbor Jean said, “Look, Susan, a rabbit!” This is my first rabbit sighting in Wildewood, though Jean says she has seen them before.
As siblings feast, this chick spreads its wings to practice. Can you imagine how it feels to flap and flap and then one day, uplift?
The Red-Shouldered Hawk chicks fledged. At least, I no longer see them in the nest. The date today is 5/22/19. You can bet on still hearing their calls to be fed, even if you cannot spot them.
THIS is what they sound like.
We already know that chicks need their parents' protection from buteos. The Canada Goose families in Wildewood need to be on alert.
