In April, 2010 we saw a pair of Cooper’s Hawks working on three nest sites in the trees behind the house. Although they both worked on the nests, it was the male that did most of the building. I watched everyday as they worked on each nest hoping that they would finally choose the one closest to the house. There was also the chance that they might abandon all three and nest elsewhere all together. The pair chose the one closest to the house which put me in a perfect place for viewing and photographing the hawks from a second story window.
I got very attached to the adults then the young birds that finally hatched. There were three young that hatched but only two survived. I took photographs everyday of the adults and chicks. There were many times that I thought the nest or the chicks would never make it through some of the violent thunderstorms we had. At one time I thought the adults left the nest for a couple days. On closer observation I could see the female laying very low in the nest protecting the chicks.
The two shots are only two weeks apart. In the top photo, taken in mid June the young hawk is taking in the new surroundings. As you can see, feathers are fast replacing the down. Two weeks later the two fledglings began to fly from tree to tree but were still returning to the nest. In the second photo, the young hawks are looking for the mother as she was calling to them to fly to another tree. She was training them to be on their own. A couple of days later the entire family of Cooper’s Hawks was gone.