Oh, the activity of late has been phenomenal. The eagle pair has been on the roost in the morning and again enjoying an evening meal as the sun sets.
Then, the other day we captured, on camera, 4 red-tailed hawks flying in the sky above us. The hawks were soaring overhead in a mating ritual, or perhaps a ‘sorting’ ritual. Will they pair up, and if so, which two?
It must have been decided in short order as a few days later I spotted a male and a female on a deciduous tree together. One of them was breaking off branches and flying away while the other sat on a branch, stoic, beautiful, and all puffy.
Interestingly enough, the female of this species can be 25% larger than the male. After reading up on these birds of prey, it is likely we witnessed the mating ritual, which could have been followed by mating. The female will lay a clutch of 1-5 eggs beginning in April, followed by an incubation period of 28-35 days, and a fledgling period of about 10 weeks.
What a spring we will have if we are able to view offspring from both the eagles and the hawks!
Read more about red-tailed hawks here:
What a spring we will have if we are able to view offspring from both the eagles and the hawks!
Read more about red-tailed hawks here:
Great stuff! I had no idea that the female red tails were so much larger than the males.
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