On Mon, 16 Mar 1998, Michael B. Brown wrote:

>
> For the last month or more, I have suspected that Red-tailed Hawks
> were planning to nest in the forested wetland near the school where I work.

> I plan to notify the staff of our school to avoid the area near the
> nest.

Michael--

that can't hurt...


Unfortunately, the adjacent field is used heavily: dog walking, sports
> practices, etc. In addition, we've had minor vandalism of our nature trail.
> I'm sure the area is visited frequently evenings and weekends by bored kids
> looking for "excitement".
>
if there are enough interested parties you might be able to
get a kind of watch going..i.e., some sort of unobtrusive
activity..just someone in the area.


> Are there any suggestions for ensuring the success of the nesting
> birds?

As you know, the Kent Valley is full of redtails earning a living
with race track traffic, jake breaks, freight trains, whistles,
bicyclists with dogs and myriads of other sorts of distractions..
and they do just fine wintering over.. there's a long time
nest or two right in an industrial area near there.
they'll do just fine.


If I witness purposeful harassment of the birds is there anything
> that can be done?
>
the Feds take a rather serious position at harassing
raptors...any activity like that should be reported to enforcement.
(last time I gave the agency, I was wrong..so I defer
to Kelly Mc..he might be able to help with that..)

years ago when I was on sabbatical in San Diego, I stayed
with my Oceanographer buddy who lived in the Hillcrest
part of town. His house backed on to a canyon and a
couple houses down a pair of redtails built a nest 100
feet up in a Eucalyptus tree..problem was even though it
was way-y-yyy up in the tree, the nest was still 25 feet
below eye level from his neighbor's house. the guy rigged
up a scope on a tripod, covered the picture window with
butcher paper and cut a small round hole in the paper to
sight through to see the hawks..he did this so people milling
' around in his living room wouldn't bother the birds.
They hatched out three downies..little white fluff balls
with enormous gaping maws and huge yellow feet. The adults
busted their little feathered butts keeping the kids fed..
and the stuff they brought in pays testimony to the
survival of this species..they eat ANYTHING.. I saw
them bring in lizards, snakes, voles, rats, squirrels,
a very small rabbit, something that looked like part of
a small cat..there were lots of feral cats in the
canyon, but the coyotes kept them in check..along with a
few domestics.. it was an amazing and profound experience
to watch that nest in operation. It was amzing to watch
how *easily* a squirrel tears up into pieces..and the size
of the pieces those baby birds swallowed was mind boggling.

I don't know how far away you are from the nest, but it
would be very educational for those kids if they could see
the adults feeding the young...a blind of some kind, perhaps?


good luck..give us updates on this.

Tom