Tag: nature

Red-Tailed Hawk Chick in the Nest!

Today, Sena raced in from the garden in the back yard and alerted me that she could see something in the Red-tailed Hawk nest, maybe a chick! We haven’t been able to see much for days now. It was spitting rain and windy so the video is pretty shaky.

But the adult hawk is standing up in the nest and you can spot the chick bobbing up and down! It looks big.

It’s pretty hard to tell but there might be another one that popped up just for a half-second. It might have been just a leaf.

We got a lucky break.

Thoughts on Nature

Yesterday afternoon when Sena came inside from working in the backyard garden, I noticed she had some swelling around her lips and eyes. Despite applying OFF! Deep Woods she got trapped in a swarm of gnats.

This reminded me of a similar swarm last spring around this time while we were out at Terry Trueblood Recreation Area. I wrote a post partly about that because of how thick they were.

Today I found a recently posted article about gnats, which have a variety of different names: no—see-ums, black flies, midges, punkies, moose flies and so on. One other author recommended seeing a doctor if you got swelling around your eyes and lips. Another author doesn’t mention that. Sena’s swelling was reduced this morning, but still noticeable.

She thinks the dozens of mulch bags she got caused most of the problem. That’s probably true since mulch is wet and can attract fungus gnats. While fungus gnats are said to be the non-biting kind of gnat, that doesn’t make them less of a nuisance.

The other day, Sena also saw the groundhog we filmed last year close to our back property line. It stood right up in about the same spot we saw it last year, when it had baby groundhogs. Sena talked about going out there to continue poking holes at the mound it made digging its burrow.

I told her that groundhogs carry a number of diseases, including rabies, and maybe the best bet would be to leave it alone. Today, I found a YouTube video from 11 years ago of a news report that demonstrated how dangerous groundhogs can be—no matter how cute they looked in our video last year.

I’m OK with nature, as long as it stays outside.

Red-tailed Hawk in the Rain!

Well, Sena came running in the garage from the back yard covered with dirt! She excitedly told me she found a spot out in the garden to get a good picture of the Red-tail hawk sitting on the nest. It started raining while we were out there, but you can still see the hawk settling into the nest as if there are eggs in it. It’s pretty watchful.

It’s been a while since we’ve caught video of the hawks because from our rear window. That’s mainly because the tree branches had leafed in enough to make it impossible to see them anymore from inside the house.

Sena found a great spot! We might even get to see chicks poking their heads up. Keep your fingers crossed.

Red tailed Hawk Pair Trade Places on the Nest

Early this morning, we saw the Red-tailed hawks trade places in the nest. This gives the mate a chance to grab a bite to eat while the other incubates the eggs we hope are in there.

Little birds tend to chase the hawks away from their territories. Even though the hawks are 3 times bigger than the little ones, they meekly oblige by moving away.

Sena’s Out in the Garden on Earth Day!

Today is Earth Day and Sena is out in the garden working. She’s doing it not just because it’s Earth Day. She’s doing it because she cares a lot about the garden and not just that. She’s often way out in the outlot beyond our back yard.

We got a message in our mailbox from Forever Green in Coralville. Of course, it’s an ad about a sale to buy stuff at their store on Earth Day through Arbor Day (April 22-25). The great part of their message is:

Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not. 

Sena cares a whole awful lot. Happy Earth Day!

How are the Red-tailed Hawks Doing?

How about them Hawks! I’m not talking about the Iowa Hawkeye football team. Today, I got another video of the Red-tailed hawk pair in their nest that might make you seasick. It’s windy. Sena tried to get a video but often gives me the camera.

According the internet they mate around March or April and lay 2-4 eggs which hatch in 4-5 weeks.

They poke around in the nest as if maybe they’re turning eggs (we think). Tree leaves are starting to bud out so visibility will unfortunately diminish.

Red-tailed Hawk Fixing Nest

This is a follow up video of the Red-tailed hawks nesting in the outlet beyond our back yard. This time it seems to be fixing up the nest. We can’t tell whether they have eggs in it or not. It was pretty windy today, so the view is even more challenging.

Saw What Might Be a Red-tail Hawk in Our Back Yard

We saw some kind of raptor today in our back yard and I couldn’t tell for sure if it was a Red-tail hawk or not. I got the video with an old Canon point-and-shoot through a window at 7:45 in the morning and she sky was overcast. It had a dark spot below its eye, mostly white breast feathers. The back feathers looked mostly brownish. It didn’t look like it had been banded.

It looked like its left foot might have been injured. It looked almost black. It held its left leg up most of the time while perched in a tree, but lowered it so it could scratch its face with the right foot. It’s blurry but you can see its left foot starting at the about 44:15 mark in the video.

I checked a couple of websites with photos of common Iowa raptors, but this bird doesn’t seem to closely resemble any of them.

That Pecking Robin is Back Again!

A couple of days ago, last year’s pesky female robin came back to peck at one of the basement windows. It’s a window well and she looks like she might be bringing next materials to it. She’s also beating at the window with her wings, as though she sees her reflection—despite the window film Sena applied to it.

I’m pretty sure this is the same robin who twisted her head around backward, Exorcist style, to stare balefully at me last spring.

She does this during the day. They sleep at night, thank goodness. But at the crack of dawn, she’s out quixotically pecking and flapping at the windows like they’re windmills.

We’re also on the lookout for the house finch pair. They seem to be scouting the covered back porch fan as a likely spot for a nest.

Thoughts on House Finches

This morning, I got a snapshot of a male house finch sitting on the back porch fence post. He’s a proud looking fellow. I saw the female a minute earlier but could not catch a picture of her.

It’s spring; they’re probably a mating pair and we saw them last year. So, there will soon be eggs somewhere out in the woods past our back yard. There will probably be chicks soon.

Maybe the chicks will survive. I remember during the month of May in 2019, I was keeping watch on a nest of house finches just outside of my office window. I would go out every day to a skinny little juniper tree, part the branches, and snap pictures of the eggs and later, the squirming hatchlings.

One day, I heard a noise like the flapping of big sheets outside my window. When I finally looked out, I saw the biggest crow I’d ever seen, just taking off with all of the nestlings clenched in its beak.

The mother house finch arrived minutes later and searched frantically for her chicks for over half an hour.

It wasn’t until then that I learned I was at fault for exposing the hiding place of the nest in the tree. I went there daily and spread the branches, probably while the crow watched me from high above in the sky.

I thought I learned my lesson, but I didn’t. In May of 2024, a mating pair of house finches built a nest in our artificial Christmas tree right on our front porch, a step away from the front door. The ruddy male would feed the female, who had laid 4 eggs.

I set up a critter cam on a tripod and filmed them for days. Every time I hustled out there to get the camera to download the videos, I scared the birds off. We watched for 17 days. The typical time to hatching is about 14 days. I finally tossed the whole thing out in the back yard.

There are a red tail hawks, turkey vultures, and crows all over the sky. I hope the house finches know better than to build a nest in any of the big pots on our porch. I know better than to draw attention to them now.