A Pretty Cool Sight

Another entry from a Chicago birding listserv (see previous post on this here). It paints such a rich scene of the intersection of city life and nature that I had to copy and paste it here for you.

Hi everyone,

Needed gas again today, so I did my usual. After filling up I went to the Red Tailed Hawk nest by Chicago & Kilbourn. As I approached I saw the one bird soaring away from the nest being harassed by Red Wings. The bird soon disappeared by the CTA property by Kostner and Chicago.

So I parked next to the smoke stack where the nest is and saw no action at all. No movement, nada. Now I'm thinking this nest can be chalked up in the failure column because I haven't seen any action or movement for about three weeks. I said to myself, self stay for about five minutes and maybe self will get lucky.

So just about at the five minute mark, in comes the Red Tail that was soaring with a rodent in its mouth. It lands on the railing and is greeted by the invisible Red Tail Hawk. Both birds go into the nest and about ten seconds later the bird takes off. Now there's all kinds of movement in the nest. Can't tell how many chicks but there's at least one. I must say that was a pretty cool sight.