What could still go wrong for this hawk family?

Good news so far for the Franklin Institute hawk family as they make the transition away from the nest. All three eyasses are flying strongly and confidently, the parents make food runs for them, and we hawk watchers have a bigger territory to observe than that window ledge on Winter Street!

I asked our Ohio raptor expert, John Blakeman, whether it is a strain on the haggards (adult hawks) to have three eyasses to tend/feed/watch out for rather than the more usual two.

John's reply:

"No, not at all, for this reason. The number of eggs a formel lays is directly related to the amount of food she's able to capture and eat in mid-winter. If finding prey is difficult, she will lay only one or two eggs. Red-tails that hatch three eyasses have an ample amount of food they can capture and consume.


The parent haggards of this nest are ample providers. I never once saw the eyasses go hungry. Life for these parents is really good - lots of rats, mice and pigeons to easily capture; a good, solid nest (thank you, Franklin Institute); and now three eyasses successfully fledging and growing up. Life could not be better for any red-tailed hawks anywhere. Philadelphia, city of brotherly love. Philadelphia, city of hawk success. These are happy, contented hawks. Nothing could be better for them."


I then asked John what could could still go wrong for this hawk family.


John replied, "In honesty, because they are wild animals, just a lot of things could go wrong. It’s tough out there, and only a small fraction of hawks that fledge ever survive to adulthood, in two or three years.

All three of this year’s eyasses may perish before becoming adults. They can be hit by a car, even on the Parkway, as a bird shoots across the road closing in on a mouse in the grass. Young red-tails sometimes crash into wires, fences, or poles and break a wing, or otherwise become disabled. Lastly, they could become infected with several lethal diseases, including aspergillosis - a fungus in the lungs (sadly, my eight year old falconry red-tail died of this last winter), frounce - a protozoan infection of the mouth and lungs, or just plain starvation.

At least for a few more weeks, probably until mid-summer, the parents will provide food. But when the days begin to markedly shorten in late summer and fall, the parents close the pantry door. The eyasses must by then have learned to hunt and kill on their own. A few birds fail in these endeavors and starve to death. Again, as wonderfully nice as all of what we saw seemed to be, each of these birds, especially the eyasses, are always close to a rapid or unforeseen demise. No animal in nature lives with any special security. Injury, disease, and death are always near at hand.

I mention all of this so that if anything untoward might happen, it could be understood as a part of the larger natural scheme of things. Have any of us pondered the pain that was suffered by the rats, mice, and pigeons that our birds so brutally killed? From a mother mouse’s perspective, to be inappropriately anthropomorphic, our hawks are brutal and uncaring killers."

- John Blakeman