Some interesting things on the hawk cam today...
there is a replay of a starling entering the hawk nest, and one
one the hatchlings tries to catch it with his foot.

They still have their fluff, but some pin feathers appear to be coming in.

You can see much more of them compared to the Norfolk eagle cam.

Your hawk photos are excellent! You might consider sharing them with folks at Gardenweb.com, in the birdwatching forum. Or maybe blowing them up and framing. I use Walgreens online system - it's easy.

Thank you Sparky.... it was such a fluke that I managed those photos! It was pure chance and luck!

I am fast with the camera, and it is automatic, and I just click away. Some come out some don't.

I had just put allergy drops in my eyes that day and couldn't see much to even frame them. So I just did my click away thing and some came out. I guess it was destined! ;)

The starling nest to the left....of the cam...finally resulted in action from one of the parent hawks..There is a video for this but it is rather gruesome IMO so I won't put it up.

These starlings have been daring and heckling the chicks so this morning one of the parents was caught and killed.

The remaining parent starling is very agitated right now and causing more grief... if not careful, he will become lunch.

I saw the starlings in the video yesterday hopping around the nest. :eek:
I figured they wouldn't last long.

I hope both adult starlings weren't killed. That'd be sad too.
Nature.

The chat line that is on that cam seems to be lots of people who know each other and also the cam operators. For example a person on the chat will make a comment, and within a very short time frame (minutes) the cam will zoom in response.

When the starling was "taken care of" the content of the chat became disrespectful and it was temporarily closed until the comments settled down. The moderator there did not want joking or gruesome statements because in nature all sorts of unpleasant things happen. I found that action very interesting!

The general consensus was that the starling may have made motions against one of the chicks...the one who typically sits near that opening to the starling nest. I saw more than once a starling with a beak full of bugs/worms coming to feed their chicks and the hawk chick made lunges toward it several times over a couple of days.

In the video linked by the moderator there, that chick observes and watches its parent kill the starling, which was a protracted event. So it was unfortunate for the starling but instructional for the hawk chick!

We have alot of starlings here...they can be raucous and loud etc. In severe winters they will come to our suet feeder and push the other birds away like the woodpeckers and nuthatches and chickadees.

behind the scenes at Cornell
 

Here is a video on how they made the cam... all the difficulties that had to be solved:


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It is pretty interesting.

Also I see this morning that a fledged starling was taken as food today. :rolleyes: The chat is banning people also today who are not conforming to the Cornell rules of behavior.

One of the starling nestlings has wandered into the hawk nest.

It is begging for food, and the 3 chicks are just watching it!

Very strange!

Oh, ick...one of the hawk chicks is trying to kill it now! Don't tune if you are faint of heart!

Oh gosh...nothing like this at the eagle nests...that is for sure!

Since the starlings on the Hawk Cornell site became a problem, and were eaten and the remaining evicted... a discussion on the chat there discusses a starling vs Kestrel fight for a nest box:


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The Kestrel won in the end.

Cornell offers a free app on bird ID.... I downloaded it yesterday to our phone, and tried it this morning. I thought it would be helpful on vacation.

It is really nice. It asks you questions on size, color, etc and you push search and bingo up comes your bird. Right off is a portrait of the hawk I saw on Mother's day here...it is indeed a immature Red Tailed hawk! They compile data from people using the app too so I did the survey...it was really quick. And I felt useful participating in that in return for the free app.


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It took ages to download, and I finally rebooted the phone and it then asked to install...so if it sticks like that for you...after 1/2 hr then just reboot. They ask for an email for you to confirm your use of the app which goes to your email. I suspect it is a research tool, gathering data on bird migration and movements etc.