Friday, September 4, 2009

End of Summer

Summer for me has officially ended with the start of school. This week has been teachers' meetings and the students arrive on Tuesday. My hawk watching has been severely curtailed recently - it's been two weeks since I've seen a haggard or an eyass - withdrawal is tough!

Carolyn has continued to provide excellent, regular reports on the Franklin Hawkaholics Facebook page, and I am posting them below so you can keep up with the recent sightings. Both haggards are very much in evidence around the Art Museum, and they are joined every so often by an eyass.

Carolyn's reports:

Thursday, August 27
No hawks about on Wednesday morning, but this morning (Thursday) I saw Dad hunting near the Art Museum, and our squawky eyass chasing Mom from pole to pole along the 24th St. on-ramp to Vine Street.

Friday, August 28
Squawky Eyass greeted me this morning from atop a streetlight at the 24th St. on-ramp to Vine Street. She saw me, mini-squawked and took off for the trees. No parents in sight, and as it was raining, I decided not to hang around.

Saturday, August 29
This rainy morning Dad was hanging out on his usual streetlight, watching the bikers prepare for an outing on the Schuylkill river drives. Our eyass was a couple of poles away and just like yesterday took one look at me, squawked and took off. Another short day of hawk watching for me, but will check again tomorrow.

Sunday, August 30
Both Mom and Dad were on street lamps near the museum this morning at 7 AM. It is hard to get pictures because it is still pretty dark. The one that I think is Mom took a quick flight to catch breakfast, returned quickly and swallowed something with a long tail (Yech!) The one I think is Dad also went hunting down by the riverbank. Both returned to lamp poles in between flights. I did not spot our eyass this morning, but will try again tomorrow when I have more time.

Monday, August 31
Cool and clear this morning with a gorgeous pink and orange sky...but NO hawks! Tomorrow is another day.

Tuesday, September 1
Another beautiful day in Philly, but no hawks spotted on my quicky AM check. I also drove by this afternoon; again, no hawks. Maybe tomorrow........

Wednesday, September 2
6:30 AM - Dad was waiting for me in the dead tree overlooking the recreational area at 24th St. and the Parkway. Mom was about a football-field length away on one of her favorite on-ramp poles. I guess they are fans of Roman Catholic HS, because that's the field where the boys in purple and gold have been practicing lately. Dad flew over to Mom's territory for a while, but both were gone by 7 AM. I saw them take off in the direction of the river. Again no eyass, but maybe she has decided to stake a claim for herself outside Mom and Dad's range of influence. Hope so. I'll check again tomorrow.

Thursday, September 3
Nobody around when I did my quickie loop of hawkville this morning. Will check on the family again tomorrow.

2 comments:

  1. Thanks Della and Carolyn - I have followed all of your postings and great pictures on Facebook but don't post there so my grateful thanks to you here for all of the info on our "family." Good luck back at school and we will hopefully have a new family to follow next year.

    mmgolfer

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  2. I hope we'll continue to see members of our hawk family, but just don't think it will be as frequently as during the summer. I'll post whatever we see!

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