Tsunami Speakers Hawks

The place

There are quite of few ravens

and many seagulls in the area.

The place is open to rather strong winds, which could gust to 25 miles per hour and more.

So I was very surprised that a hawk has chosen such a place.

I remember suggesting to an elderly birder that maybe this hawk is training, but she told me: "too much effort for just a training". Later I talked to another lady who shared with me her reaction, when she first noticed this nest. She thought to herself: "no a way." Well, apparently there was a way.

The speakers

The speakers are used as an outdoor warning system, and many call them "tsunami speakers". They are getting tested every Tuesday.

I filmed the female hawk reaction to her talking nest:

Building of the nest

For me this story has started in April of 2014.

It was, when I first noticed that a red-tailed hawk is building a nest

in a rather unusual place: tsunami speakers.

The hawk was building the nest by himself. There was no other hawk helping him, and no other hawk around for that matter.

I've checked on the nest regularly, and there was still only this hawk, alone. My husband called him "a bachelor."

I was sure that he would not be able to find a female who'd agree to incubate the eggs in this nest. Little did I know.

Finding a mate and courting

A year has passed, and in this March (March of 2015) I noticed that the hawk behavior has changed.He was sitting at the nest, doing nothing. When he was building it, he came and went, but now in March of 2015 (maybe the end of February) he was just sitting there. Still I saw no other hawk, but I might have missed on her at that time.

Once, somewhere on March 13 or so we were driving by the nest. A hawk was sitting there. I say "a hawk" because I am not sure which hawk it was.

I had no camera on me. While we were watching another hawk came with a great speed. That other hawk knocked the hawk sitting at the nest down, and they both fell to the ground.

I got out of the car and approached the hawks, but by that time they recovered enough to fly away. They flew in the same direction, but I did not see what they did after.

So ever since I saw that strange episode, I resumed watching the nest on a regular basis.

In the above video, taken on March 15, I recorded one of the first times I observed the interactions between the male and female. I called my hawks Tsunami Speakers Hawks, and I named the male Harry and the female Sally.

Then on March 17 I took this video:

Here are screenshots from it:

There were no yet eggs laid at the nest at that time, so it was not changing of the guard.

It looked as a courtship on the male part at least ( The male is the one who's laying in the nest.) I Googled for this kind of behavior but could not find anything. So I ended up emailing Dr. Charles R. Preston, a well known expert on raptors behavior. He responded: "Yep, still testing one another with some coyness and even aggression . . .not unlike humans in the right circumstance." When I asked Dr. Preston why I could not have find any reference of this kind of courtship anywhere at the NET he responded:

"I have seen it fairly often and have talked to others who have observed it, but I can’t think of reading any detailed description of the behavior in the literature. Again, may have been described in the old Bent series (North American Birds of Prey Part I)."

I kind of hoped I was the first one who observed and documented this behavior, but sadly it was not the case. Oh, well, maybe next time:-)

I observed that kind of courting a few more times, and then in a few days their relationship improved to the extent, that somewhere on March 20 they began mating regularly .

Sally often chose high voltage utility pole for mating. The last time I observed the pair mating was on April 12, four days after the first egg was laid. So they kept mating a few times per day for at least 20 days before Sally laid the eggs. During all that time I have never seen Sally hunting. She was spending her time between her favorite tree and a high voltage utility pole. Sometimes she visited the nest, mostly to pick up the food brought there by Harry.

Usually Sally got very exited, when she saw Harry making a kill. Seldom she let him to eat his catch without screaming at him, and/or flaying to where he was eating. Sometimes though she did not feel comfortable to land at a small tree just in front of my camera and me. In these situations she flew to the nest, and screamed until the food was delivered there.

On the other hand Harry has been never afraid of me. Once he made a kill literally at my feet:

The above image was taken in July 2014 much before Harry met Sally, but let's go back to the story.

During the time they were courting I have never seen Sally to hunt, or to bring nest material to the nest. Harry did all the job.

Incubating eggs

I think the first egg was laid somewhere between April 8 and April 12. It appeared that the first few days Harry was the one to do most incubation. Sometimes they incubated the eggs together, especially, when the wind was strong.

Sometimes he even protected her with his own body as it is shown at the end of this video from April 11, 2015 (The wind was so strong, that I hardly could hold my camera still)

From April 12 Sally took over. Ever since one of the hawks was present at the nest most of the time although on April 16 I observed Harry and Sally flying together like they still were courting:

There were a few other instances, when the nest was left unguarded for a short time.

During that time Harry exhibited a very interesting and not a very common behavior: he often refused to let Sally to incubate the eggs! Usually it was like that: Harry would bring food to the nest, Sally would take to her favorite tree or a favorite high voltage utility pole to eat, and then, when she comes back to change Harry at the nest, he simply refuses to get up! Sometimes it ended up in an argument:

On April 17, when I came Harry was incubating, and then Sally arrived. For 5 minutes or so she was asking him to allow her to incubate. She screamed, she walked around the nest, and a few times it looked as Harry was ready to leave, but he did not. Eventually she was the one who left. She came back in about an hour, and on that time Harry was more agreeable and left the eggs on her.

It looked as almost every time Sally was ready to take her duties on the eggs Harry was not ready to leave. On April 19 Harry brought his catch to the nest, and Sally took it to her tree to eat. She finished eating and simply sat on the tree for quite some time. When she eventually arrived at the nest, once again Harry was not in a hurry to let her to incubate. She even pecked (or should I say "kissed") him a few times and eventually he left.

It was getting worse. On April 22 Harry refused to let Sally to incubate the eggs for more than two hours. She came to the nest 4-5 times during that time, but all the times he did not even move, and Sally flew back to her favorite tree. In an hour after Harry at last let her to incubate he made another kill, and took it to the nest. Once again Sally left the nest and Harry settled to incubate. It did not look as Sally was hungry, it rather looked that Harry talked her into leaving the nest. It looks like Harry loves to incubate the eggs, or maybe he thinks he does it better than his mate.

Still as during the courting I've never observed the female hunting during the incubation. Once she brought a stick (nest material) to the nest. She even hardly was flying except between the nest and her favorite tree.

The chicks are hatching

Of course it is impossible to look inside the nest, and I cannot be certain about the exact timing of the hatching, but I noticed that the behavior of both hawks have changed. Most of the times before hatching began Sally got very exited, when Harry was approaching with food. Now since May 13 she hardly was showing any interest in the prey he delivered, and when she finally was eating, she ate at the nest (there was no feeding of the chicks at that time) . I've read that it could take up to 72 hours between a chick starting pipping (the chick initially breaking through the shell) and hatching. On the other hand Harry's behavior has also changed. He visited the nest much more often with no apparent reason, and then, on May 13, I noticed he was standing above Sally for 10 minutes. Then Sally got up. Both hawks looked down for a few seconds, and then... well it almost looked as they kissed each other (please see about 5 minutes into this video)

On May 14 when I came Harry was incubating. Then Sally arrived (not sure, if it was the first time she came after she left) After she started moving in Harry got up and flew away.

Harry was using every opportunity to come to the nest. He was bringing nest material a few times, and every time stayed at the nest for a few minutes. Once he brought a piece of paper.

Then I observed him bringing a kill to the nest. It was rather small and Sally swallowed it all together at the nest, and refused to leave the nest. After a short argument Harry left.

On may 16 Harry spent a lot of time at the nest, sometimes doing nothing, just sitting above Sally who was laying down. Harry clearly was eager to look what is going on under Sally, but she was not easy to get up.

A few times Harry brought nest material, but sometimes he flew away before it was secured, and the wind blown it to the ground, where I filmed it.

Then Harry attacked a gopher, and ate it alive in a single big swallow.

Then he brought a much bigger gopher to the nest. Still Sally was not eager to get up even to eat. At last she did. She ate at the nest, sometimes demonstrating an aggression towards Harry who used an opportunity to lay down at the eggs.

The same day afternoon Harry was more at the nest, than out. Sometimes he flew away but always came back rather fast.

Sometimes he laid down next to Sally, and the both hawks were so low that they would have been impossible to notice by an untrained eye.

At some point Sally was eating a bird. See the feather flying off? But the most interesting part, it is, when Harry and Sally have beaks contact. It almost looks like they were training how to feed the incoming chicks.

Generally speaking, it appeared that during that time both hawks behaved as all new parents do: they were worrying about the kids, and gentle to each other.

On May 17 for the first time I observed feeding of chicks(chick) who were too small to see just yet.

Bringing up the chicks

First few days after I first observed the feeding of a chick Harry still was spending a lot of time at the nest, and used every opportunity to visit the nest. Here's only one example: Once Harry was getting away from a blackbird, and ended up landing at the nest. The time was 5:16 p.m. He stayed at the nest doing nothing until he made sure that the female got up and is about to feed the chick. When he did fly away the time was 5:59. So he spent at the nest 43 minutes!

Here's the video of the last few minutes of these 43 minutes

Since May 22 Sally gradually has became more and more aggressive towards Harry.

No more long stays at the nest were allowed. Delivering food became the only reason for Harry to come to the nest.

A few days ago Sally developed a new habit. Now, when she sees Harry making a kill, no matter how far from the nest it is, she leaves the chicks and, screaming flies toward him, then still creaming follows him to the nest. As soon as she claims his catch, she screams at him to leave, which he does silently. The video below demonstrates three episodes of such behavior, all filmed at the same day.

Siblicide

At first there were three chicks. In my estimation the first one hatched on May 16 or 17, and I'd say the third one hatched a 5-7 days later. At first everything seemed to be fine, but then on June second I observed an aggression of the oldest chick towards the youngest one. On June third the aggression got worse. It was not even associated with the feeding anymore. June third was the last day I observed the third chick... The third chick was either killed or intimidated to such an extend that he even stopped asking for food...In any case he's gone. This kind of behavior is called siblicide. Siblicide is common in some birds species but relatively rare in red-tailed hawks.

After that my observations have been compromised by a very ignorant man who

has started feeding the hawks with Safeway chicken legs, and who knows what else.

So I practically stopped watching them on a regular basis.

What happened later

Although I stopped watching the nest regularly, I could not stop my observations altogether.

Sally was spending time with chicks, feeding them with chicken legs, delivered by Harry, who took them from that man who fed him. Harry practically stopped hunting and instead waited to be fed. Sally still did not hunt.

July 2 was the last day I saw the chicks at the nest. That day I watched the nest for about an hour. The female visited the nest once, and stayed a few seconds. She did not deliver any food. Then the male made a kill. Maybe he ate a little bit by himself, but he brought almost all of it to the chicks.

Before that chicks screamed for food, and it looked as they tried to eat sticks and dry grass from their nest, or maybe they were just rearranging it. Maybe at that time the man who fed them stopped it at last.

The next time I stopped at the nest on July 5,2015.

I observed two adults (the mom and dad) at the nest and a street lamp together. Sally was screaming a lot. Their behavior at the nest was similar to their behavior, when they were courting and/or incubating. There were no chicks anywhere to be seen.

I've asked Dr. Chuck Preston to explain why the parents still sitting together at the nest. He responded:

"The adult behaviors suggest to me that they recognize the loss of their chicks, and may even be searching/calling for them . . .typically, they would be following them along and helping to feed them for another few weeks. I anticipate that this behavior will fade soon, and the adults will get back to the business of fending for themselves."

Then a man told me that one chick died, when he was trying to fly and crashed, and another was picked up by animal rescue. I called animal rescue. They did pick up the chick yesterday. They told me he crashed over two houses, then landed at a tree and could no longer fly. They were able to net him and get him down. He was taken to a rehabilitation center.

Now, I am not sure what part of that tragedy with chicks is due to the nest location (no branches to learn to fly) and what part played the chicken legs the man fed the hawks with.

I've already wrote about that, but I would like to repeat it. When I told that man to stop feeding hawks with chicken legs he told me he wants to "experiment on them" . Well, his cruel experiment has failed. Were the chicks wings too weak because they were not getting the nutrition they needed to be strong?

On July 12, 2015 I observed similar behavior of two adults:

Then a man told me that somewhere on July 22 he saw both the male and the female at the nest. The male delivered the food to female.

I kept asking locals, if they know exactly what happened to the third chick. Some people told me he flew away, others told me they saw him at the nest. I am not 100% sure that they are wrong, but I believe they are probably wrong and here's why:

Rad-tailed hawks fledglings stay with their parents for at least few weeks after they fly out of the nest. They are very noisy, chasing their parents, screaming for food. I've observed such behavior countless times, but never with tsunami speakers hawks. That is why I believe the third chick is probably dead.

But what about the other one, the one who got to a rehabilitation center?

This one was released on July 25, 2015 at a tree close to the nest:

No parents were present there at the time of his release. The fledgling then flew away (he flies good now). Maybe I see some more of him and his parents one day.