42 



THE OOLOOIST 



A Nest of the Florida Red-shouldered 

 Hawk. 



The Florida Red-shouldered Hawk is 

 one of our commonest breeders here in 

 Harris County, Texas. Every year 

 three or four pairs nest in a strip of 

 pine woods about 8 or 9 miles up Buf- 

 falo Bayou. This strip is a quarter of 

 a mile wide and three miles long. Be- 

 sides these Hawks, a few other Rap- 

 tores are found in this strip; namely, 

 Black Vultures, Swallow-tailed Kites, 

 Red-tailed Hawks, Screech Owls, and 

 Great Horned Owls. 



My first day of Spring fever, this 

 year, fell on April 18th. It was a 

 fine, crispy morning, so I arose early, 

 shouldered my traps and hiked up the 

 bayou. I spent all morning searching 

 for the nest of a pair of Red-shoulder- 

 ed Hawks which had attracted by at- 

 tention in one corner of this strip of 

 woods, but I found nothing but a Black 

 Vulture nest. I got a nice set of two 

 out of the nest which was in a hollow 

 sycamore. I decided to postpone the 

 search for the Hawk's nest, until some 

 other day. 



On the 29th of April, I got my traps 

 together, and tried again After about 

 an hour's search I heard the scream 

 of the hawk to my left. I hurried over 

 there and soon found the nest, which 

 was 45 feet up in a pine. It was well 

 situated, being placed in the only fork 

 of the tree. There were four or five 

 branches in this fork and the nest had 

 been added to, each year, until it was 

 about two feet high. It was a tough 

 climb as the first limb was about 35 

 feet up; the tree was draped in Span- 

 ish moss, which clogged my climbers 

 and kept getting in my eyes and down 

 my neck; and the bark scaled at every 

 step. 



Upon reaching the nest I found it 

 contained two young hawks, several 

 days old; one was a little larger than 

 the other, although both were too 



young to do anything but emit a weak 

 whine. Both were covered with dirty 

 white down, and had yellow feet. They 

 had sky-blue eyes. A fourth of an 

 inch at the tips of both mandibles was 

 black, the remainder of the bill being 

 yellow. 



The nest was composed of sticks of 

 all sizes and contained a small sup- 

 ply of cord, which was wound in and 

 out among the sticks. It had been 

 used for several seasons as could be 

 told by the different layers of sticks. 

 The nest was 22 inches across, 2 

 inches deep, and contained a lining of 

 green pine needles. 



I attempted to get a snap-shot from 

 two positions, but the results were not 

 very satisfactory. A time exposure 

 was out of the question as the tree 

 was swaying in the breeze and my 

 footing was not very secure. The fol- 

 lowing is from my note book: 



"May 6. Visited the Red-shouldered 

 Hawk's nest at 2:30 p. m. in company 

 with George Ewing, of this city. The 

 young faced me with snapping beaks 

 and showed a strong desire to claw 

 me. They were considerably larger 

 and the pin-feathers were showing in 

 both birds. The primaries were begin- 

 ning to appear in the wings of the 

 larger bird. The nest contained the 

 remains of a Garter Snake. 



"May 14. As we approached the 

 nest, both parents started calling. The 

 young were beginning to take on a 

 mottled look. The primaries were 

 showing in both young. The larger 

 sunk his claws in my hand as I picked 

 him up to see how heavy he was. One 

 of the parents probably the male, did 

 all of his calling from the top of a 

 nearby pine, but the other flew ner- 

 vously about, several times quite close 

 to us, and kept calling all the while. 

 The tree had the appearance of being 

 white-washed in spots from the amount 

 of excrement which had collected on 



