Concord, Mass.
1907.
April 8 
to 
June 30
  A pair of Red-shouldered Hawks bred this year
in the woods at the base of Holden's Hill. Their nest was
finished when I first visited it on April 7. It was placed
in the fork of a large & very tall Chestnut about sixty feet
above the ground. On the 8th of April the bird flew from it as I
approached. On April 29, and whenever I visited the place 
in May, I found one or other of the Hawks on the nest.
I could see its tail projecting over one side and the head
well raised above the rim on the opposite side. Sometimes I
could walk directly under the tree without disturbing the
bird but it usually flew off when I was forty or fifty
yards away and slided silently out of sight through
the tree tops. I often heard one or both birds screaming
near the nest before I entered the woods but they never
made any sound when I was near the nest. On May 25
the female, after leaving the nest, turned back and scaled
past me twice on set wings coming within twenty yards of
me low down among the trees. This was repeated later
in June when on one occasion she became so daring as
to swoop down at Mr Forbush' head passing so near
his face that he felt the wind of her wings. On June
9th I saw three young apparently nearly full grown standing
erect on the nest. They showed a few patches of feathers but
were chiefly covered with down. The down had been nearly
all shed by the 20th when the birds had their wings
well grown and their tails four or five inches in length.
As I watched them unseen from a distance they moved
about a little, uneasily, and occasionally spread and
flapped their wings. When they saw me they crouched in 
the nest still showing their heads, however. They were in
the nest on June 30 but gone the next day. After
Notes on the breeding habits of a pair of Red-Shouldered hawks