I'm assuming Nate won't mind if I forward his message to me. I *should*
have said "I've never seen a red-tail nesting on a utility pole." Now I
know they sometimes do so. This is what the net is all about, the transfer
of information. The right to be wrong! Any other instances of this known
to tweeters?

>Dennis,
>
>In a recent post you mentioned that Red-tailed hawks apparently don't nest
>on utility poles due to large nest size. I'm not sure what kind of poles
>you meant, but for several years now Red-tails have been successfully
>nesting on the cross arms of a wood power pole on my undergrad. campus in
>Riverside, CA. Nest material has been accumulating for some time and the
>entire "nest zone" is amazing. The birds may be there partly because the
>poles are the only potential nest sites in a fairly large (500 acres)
>piece of good habitat.
>
>Nate Sutter

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416