Happy New Hawk Year!

It's surely been a long time since I last posted, but Hawkwatch is back in business!  

On this last day of 2012, hawk watchers are getting ready for another exciting year with the Franklin Institute red-tail hawks.  Mom and T2 are together and hanging out in their usual spots. Here they were this week on the Family Court building.

         Shannon O'Donnell

The nest came through Hurricane Sandy fine.  Karen Elinich from the Franklin Institute posted this welcome news in November:

"There's no new activity [at the nest], but we wanted to let everyone know that the superstorm may have knocked out power and knocked down trees, but it did no damage at all to the hawk nest! The box and the nest are undisturbed, exactly as the hawks left it. We'll be keeping an eye out in late December / early January when we usually see the adults return to begin tending to it. We're keeping our fingers crossed!"  - Karen Elinich

 

Shannon O'Donnell spied Mom this morning on a window ledge...

 

 Shannon O'Donnell  

... and T2 in a tree near the nest.

 

Shannon O'Donnell

 T2 has definitely "bulked up" after a summer and fall of good hunting. This was taken on December 16.

 

Shannon O'Donnell  

T2 succeeded brilliantly in every test he faced last spring when he was "adopted" by Mom as step-tiercel to help raise the week-old eyasses after Dad's untimely death.  Now, in perhaps his biggest test yet, he has to initiate nest activity and claim the Franklin nest as his own.  If he does not do that, there will be no more Franklin hawks. 

He and Mom are clearly a bonded pair and are regularly seen perching close together on neighboring buildings....

                          Shannon O'Donnell 

... and making hunting flights from the Family Court.

     Shannon O'Donnell

But it is up to T2 to decide where their nest will be for the 2013 season.

So keep your talons crossed that we will soon see nest activity on the Board Room window ledge.