Today was a terrible one for the young Hawks. The new adult male who’s begun bonding with Sadie now that her previous mate Bobby is gone has been attacking her babies with violent kicks.
I have not trusted him since his threatening flyby against yesterday’s fledgling and today’s actions unfortunately confirmed my concerns.
Sadie interrupted a couple of his attacks when she brought food to the nest but other than that, I can’t be sure if she was even aware he was causing the young Hawks so much grief.
The new Hawk’s arrival in the park is bad timing. If he continues as he does without Sadie’s intervention he may drive the babies away from the park (or worse) with the purpose of being her new mate and having his own babies with her next year.
You can imagine the terrible risk of this happening since the young Hawks cannot yet hunt and feed themselves and are relying on Sadie to feed them.
This male Hawk briefly visited the nest bowl at 8:25 this morning (you can see one of the young Hawks lying down in the foreground):
He is clearly getting bolder and beginning to establish himself as part owner of this territory.
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The first action I saw this morning was Sadie bringing food to the two Hawk babies still in the nest.
She then flew out of the nest and returned to her perch.
One of the Hawks getting some flying practice in:
I do not know if Sadie was around 35 minutes later when the next thing happened. The male landed on the top of the library. He is seated on the left in the picture below. One of the Hawk babies can be seen in the nest in the right-hand window:
He dove right into the nest and attacked one of the babies:
His kicking was so powerful, the young Hawk lost her footing and fell over the side of the nest ledge:
Note her leg going over the edge:
The young Hawk managed to fly toward one of the eastern buildings but she could not land properly or get a good footing. A fellow birder saw her try to clutch the stone facade. The male was right next to her the whole time. The young Hawk then flew toward the park and crash-landed in one of the trees.
She managed to grab a branch and stopped falling further. She cried as she hung upside down.
She lost her footing and started crashing down again:
She managed to grab onto another branch and stay upright. Her wings were a little tangled in the twigs and leaves but she looked OK overall.
The male Hawk landed on a higher tree and looked down at her, screaming often.
Looking toward the camera at one point:
The young Hawk cried several times. She did not cry the typical “please feed me” cry. She called out several long, drawn-out tones that sounded quite pitiable. It was then that the other birder noticed and pointed out Sadie sitting on her original perch. I have no idea if Sadie saw the attack but she did not react to the male’s screams or the fledgling’s cries.
The young Hawk climbed to a better location:
I alerted Bobby Horvath of WINORR (Wildlife in Need of Rescue and Rehabilitation) of the situation. He passed the news on to our Park Ranger friend who was working nearby so he could come over and check on the fledgling.
Two Rangers came by and observed the fledgling and we as a group generally agreed that she looked OK and that a rescue probably wasn’t warranted at the moment. She appeared to be more stunned than injured. She could open her wings and flap them in order to gain higher footing. How well she can actually fly remains to be seen.
The male Hawk and Sadie flew about for the next hour and a half. The male Hawk returned to the nest ledge but I don’t know if he attacked the remaining baby:
There wasn’t too much activity of note for the next 2 1/2 hours so I left with the fledgling still in her tree:
I got home and watched on the live nest cam as the male Hawk attacked the remaining nest baby several times. As I wrote above, Sadie interrupted a couple of the attacks when she dropped off food to the nest. The male retreated when she arrived but returned to the nest several more times to kick at and harass the baby when Sadie was not there. I will make a compilation video of the footage I recorded of these attacks for a future post.
The last report I got about the treed fledgling was that she was still in the same tree as recently as 7PM. She was alert and moving about on the branch.
I did not see the fledgling from yesterday on any of the eastern buildings during my outing but I believe I did see it flying about the roof tops while I was watching the cam from home.
So difficult to watch ‘bully boy’ beat up the new girlfriends kids…..but I try to remember that we shouldn’t anthromorphasize birds. Great pictures! Glad you were there to document what happened.
I hope Sadie is able to feed each of the eyasses in their different places and that they learn to hunt for themselves. So overwhelming to think of how she’ll manage.
I agree. With previous fledgings, both Bobby and Sadie would feed the young on the eastern roof tops together. It is going to be difficult for her to manage feeding the babies all spread out and also teach them how to hunt (especially with a new male who interferes).
Today a little after 5 am was another episode of the new guy on the ledge. And another shortly after that. All before 8. One time Mom arrived and new guy walked down the ledge and flew off. When he buzzed (flew down the street at just below ledge level) by it was strange. At 12:40 he backed the baby into the corner again then strutted off.
Thank you for all your hard work getting us factual info and the video of cam.
Thanks! Sorry for responding so late, it’s been a busy couple of days. Yes, I happened to capture cam footage of some of the male’s attacks on the baby in this post.
This is so sad for the babies. I don’t think he will stop until he kills them. I hate saying this but I have seen this before. Raptor males will not accept the female’s babies. I hope they rescue them. They are so close to full fledge that I would hate to see Bobby’s last offspring be hurt.
The male may not go so far as to kill the young Hawks due to their size (I hope!) but may attempt to drive them away well before they are ready to hunt on their own and fend for themselves.
I realize this is nature and letting it work out, but I cannot watch this occur. Reading about it is difficult enough
I don’t know if I will log on tomorrow …
I empathize, Jeanne. It’s difficult observing all this even while acknowledging that Hawks have behaved in similar fashion for millions of years.
he should be killed before he kills the babies.
This is the side of nature that is difficult to observe. I am just hoping Sadie realizes what’s happening and will drive him away.
She must be able to hear their cries. Maybe she is just spread too thin with three dependent babies in different places and fend off her suitor as well.
So there are three! That is what I thought. OMG, how are the other two pushed off the ledge? This is so upsetting.
Yes, she can hear their cries. Fingers crossed that she manages to protect and raise them enough so they can thrive and eventually find their own territories.
This is Nature at work. This boy wants Sadie to himself and he is driving off all distractions so he gets the attention. There was a strange Male RT around in early April, could this be the guy who was driven off a few times? Could he have scrapped with Bobby and perhaps hurt him?
Hoping this all gets resolved without death to an accidental fledgling. These babies did not fledge willingly and probably will not return to their nest for feedings. I guess Sadie better figure out how to feed them off nest. I wish Bobby would show up like Superman and drive off this intruder.
As always, beautiful photos! Thank you!
Yes, the new male’s actions absolutely point to him wanting to rid the park of the babies in order to claim the territory with Sadie as his mate.
I did not see a post from April with a stranger Hawk. If you were referring to the visiting Hawk on May 6th then no, it is not the same Hawk as that visitor was a juvenile Hawk. However, I do believe the new male might be the same bird I saw on May 9th.
This has become too difficult to read about. I agree with Robert that the hawk should be killed before he kills all the babies. And am I the only one who believes he may have killed Bobby? It’s just too much of a coincidence that the first time we see this new hawk is the same day Bobby disappears. Sadie has not responded quickly enough to save her family, but this long day isn’t over yet.
Do we even know all babies but one are ok? I agree it is so traumatic. What is Sadie thinking? I feel terrible for her.