Our pair of red-tails have been visiting the nest for awhile now, but it's time to get busy! This morning, Daddy Redlegs brought a stick and looked around for a brief few minutes at around 9:20 a.m. nest time.

Here is a link to the nest cam:

http://hdontap.com/index.php/video/stream/red-tail-hawk-cam

Here is our red-tail pair on the nest. The female has her back to us. (She is easy to I.D. from this view, as she has only faint sub-terminal markings on her tail.) The male usually hunkers down in the nest when she is present. He obviously respects his mate's dominance of the nest.

As soon as the female flew, the male jumped up and marched to the edge of the nest for a look around. He took off and was back minutes later with a leafy branch. Then off and back again with a stick. He is clearly inspired.

These two are beautiful.

Congratulations to the San Diego Red-tails! First egg was laid 2-16-2017 at about 2:37 pm nest time.

A lot has happened since the last post.... we had two eggs in the nest, and they're still there. But unfortunately, Mama Bright-Eyes is not taking care of them. And Daddy Redlegs, although he is trying to be both parents right now, will not likely be able to continue indefinitely. And, incidentally, late this afternoon, Daddy Redlegs was able to tempt Mama Bright-Eyes to appear briefly at the nest to investigate a tasty rabbit he brought there, so she is NOT injured.

Our friend, John Blakeman, posts at the hdOnTap site, and his most recent post is under review (I do not know why). If the powers that be decide to delete the post, I want you to be able to read it, so here goes:

"Synopsis — Status of the San Diego Red-tailed Hawks
(26 Feb 2017)

This pair of Red-tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) has attempted to nest, but has failed. Several factors have contributed to this.

Foremost, the female (raptor females, in ancestral falconry are called “formels”) is young, in her second or third year; revealed by the combination of her red tail and yellow eyes. All Red-tails in their first year have brown, banded tails; they don’t get the red feathers until the first molt in their second summer.

First-year Red-tails also have yellow eyes; but this bird has a red tail and yellow eyes. She’s not typical. With the red tail, she should have brown eyes. Her physical development (at least eye color) has been somehow or for some reason delayed. I would fully expect her to gain the typical dark brown eyes during this summer’s molt.

All of this indicates that this formel is not normal. Her physical (and perhaps psychological) development has been altered or delayed.

Additionally, her egg-laying was abnormal. She laid a first egg very nicely and incubated rather typically. At the start, all was well. But no second egg appeared on the second day, when such eggs are normally laid. Instead, the second egg didn’t appear until the fifth day, an interval entirely too long to be mere chance. Something was amiss. Could have been a number of contravening factors.

Perhaps the second egg simply did not develop normally. It was delayed in the reproductive tract of the bird, and finally got laid. If so, the egg itself was probably dead or non-viable, and the delayed laying revealed some deeper endocrine or physiological problems with the bird.

A second explanation is that she laid her second egg on time, on the second or third day, but for unknown reasons “dumped” it, simply dropped it to the ground from some remote perch. For unknown reasons she was not at the nest when the egg descended and was excreted from her cloacal (pelvic) orifice. If so, this would have been an indication of some internal or psychological problem.

Finally, on the fifth day, the third egg was laid, bringing two into the nest. Both the formel (female) and the tiercel (male) incubated closely and alternatively, as typical with successful Red-tails. All, finally, appeared well.

Then, some nocturnal event caused the formel to retreat from incubation, and she hasn’t been seen at the nest since. There is conjecture that a Great Horned Owl attacked or harassed her on the nest, driving her off the eggs. There is no direct evidence for this; there is a chance this could have happened.

But, to my knowledge, the formel has not been seen at the nest since this incident, raising questions as to her health. Some have reported injury; but others have reported seeing her fly. If she can fly, she is not injured.

Nonetheless, for whatever reason, she has not returned to incubate her eggs on her nest. Something with her is aberrant. If she has been seen flying, there is no injury. Wing-injured Red-tails can’t and don’t fly.

But there (most likely) has been psychological injury. The bird may have been terrified by another intruding raptor, perhaps a Great Horned Owl, and out of fear and self-preservation no longer has a compulsion to sit vulnerably on the eggs at night.

If so, this might all derive from her young and inexperienced status. I’ve studied Red-tailed Hawks for 40 years, and early on, noticed new nests that more often than not failed in initial nesting attempts. Red-tails have nesting and reproductive instincts. But “practice makes perfect.” First-year nesting attempts are quite often (in some populations most often) unsuccessful. Failures resulted from poorly-constructed nests, failure to sufficiently incubate, among many others.

After these early failures, subsequent breeding attempts are most often successful. We will hope this formel has learned useful lessons and had experiences that will allow her to nest successfully next year.

The tiercel at this nest has been superb. He appears to be several years old. He has his act together. He helped refurbish the nest this winter. He brought prey to the nest, to feed the formel as she grew eggs. He incubated (as now) in her absence. The tiercel has done everything right. The formel appears to be a bit adolescent in her reproductive efforts; upon which she can build next season.

What will happen now? The best (highly unlikely) would be for both parents to resume shared incubation and the two eggs would develop and hatch. Because of lengthy periods of cooling, this in not a likely prospect.

Instead, the tiercel — and hopefully the formel, too — will remain at the nest, claiming it as the center of their territory. Then, we would hope, both will return next winter to start the reproductive process all over again, but successfully.

We all wished for a story-book season, with intense incubation, then hatching, and the wonderful development of hatched downy eyasses on to become fledged new young Red-tails.

Doesn’t appear we will get to observe this drama this year at this nest. Next year, perhaps.

–John Blakeman"

Thanks for posting this R4. It is loaded with information and insight. A lot to learn from those who have been observing raptors for a very long time.