Cambridge, Mass.
1911.
April 3
[April 3, 1911]

Sparrow Hawks preparing to nest in pines in Smith place

  As I was walking down Brattle Street about 10.30 this
morning I saw the pair of Sparrow Hawks in the Chauncey
Smith place, the [female] circling just above the trees, the [male]
perched in the big pine with the dead top that stands close
to the house on the south of it next what was once the shore
of the artificial pond, filled many years ago. Just as I came
abreast of the house the [male] flew from the end of the
branch on which he had been sitting to the trunk of the
pine, entering a hole on its south side about 30 feet above
the ground. I had noticed this hole before and had wondered
if the Sparrow Hawks might not be intending to nest in it.
They hatched & reared a brood of young which were seen just after leaving the nest by W. Dean
It looks perfectly round and in every respect like a Flicker's
hole which, no doubt, it was originally. I had it under
observation for two or three minutes after the [male] Hawk went
into it but did not see him reappear. I now believe that
it must have been occupied as a nesting place by the pair of
Sparrow Hawks that I saw last spring (that of 1910) practising [practicing]
their low flights over and around our grounds.