I was walking the across the Connecticut Ave. bridge today when I stopped a quarter of the way to notice the old nest, once home to Walt and Libby, the Red-shouldered hawk family who raised three healthy chicks last spring. Winter winds did little to disrupt the nest's remarkable construction, still resting in the fork of a eucalyptus tree.
I looked a little closer with my binoculars to see something green inside. Are these sprigs from our hawk family moving their furniture in? Will we again be enraptured by our familiar feathered raptor family?
According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Red-shouldered Hawks often reuse nests from past years. Both the male and female often refurbish the prior year’s nest. Stick nests are about 2 feet in diameter and lined with bark, moss, lichens, and green sprigs. The parents continue to add fresh green leaves throughout the nesting season.
With spring around the corner, maybe we'll be lucky to welcome back the former tenants.
Stay tuned to this blog, dear ones.
To read previous posts about the Woodley and Cleveland Park hawks, visit here.
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