THE FINDING OF THE HAWKS' EYRIE 



BY AINSLEE B. ALLEN 



IT is not very often that one is favored with an oppor- 

 tunity to look upon the home affairs of a Red 

 Shouldered Hawk, for they usually build too high 

 for a human being to climb safely. However, this oppor- 

 tunity came to me and I took advantage of it by securing 

 a few photographs. Red Shouldered Hawks are not very 

 plentiful in my section of the country and so I consider 

 myself lucky. It was while taking my usual Sunday after- 



THE REWARD OF THE CLIMBER TO THE HAWKS' EYRIE 



The nest and eggs of the Red Shouldered Hawk which were found 

 in the tree sixty feet above the ground. 



noon walk that I discovered the nest. It was towards the 

 end of April and the leaves had not yet come out. 

 My companion is as enthusiastic 'about birds as I am 

 and we had noticed on previous walks that the hawks 

 had mated but never dreamed of discovering their' eyrie. 

 < >n this particular Sunday I was alone, and by chance I 

 happened to see the female leave the nest while I was 

 still some two hundred feet away. If she had not flown, 

 probably the nest would not have been found. It 

 had been built by crows the year before and had she not 

 exposed herself, I would have thought the nest old and de- 

 serted. I was much pleased with the discovery, and, after 

 telling my friend, brought him to the spot. Together we 



161 



made plans to ascend, for the nest was sixty feet from 

 the ground and there was not a single limb between the 

 nest and ground. It was impossible to tell how many 

 eggs there were or how old they were. We longed for a 

 pair of telegraph lineman's spurs, and a friend promised 

 to lend us a pair. After waiting for more than a week 

 and not receiving the spurs, we grew impatient for we 

 feared that the eggs would be hatched before we could 

 photograph them. 



Not to be discouraged and upon my friend's sug- 

 gestion, we made a crude pair of spurs ourselves. 

 He had a pair of stilts which we cut off short, once 

 just below the foot rest and again two feet higher. 

 In school, a pair of steel spurs were forged and these 

 were fastened to the stilts by strong screws. The stilts 



BABY HAWKS NOT CHICKS 



Covered with soft fluffy down like chicks, these young Red Shouldered 

 Hawks, at four days old, are making a tour of investigation of the nest. 



were fastened to the inside of our legs by straps in such 

 a position as to bring the spurs on the inside and the 

 foot blocks on the outside. 



After school, one clear day, not long after we finished 

 our climbers, we set out with our cameras and portrait 

 attachments. The portrait attachment give us the power 



