A Second East Side Nest

  I’m in the process of rebuilding an old notebook computer of mine. I needed to make a trip to Fry’s Electronics on the northeast side of Indianapolis to pickup a new hard drive. The wife decides that as long as we’re in the area of one of her favorite city parks we should also visit the park. Ritchey Woods, one of the newer parks in Indianapolis, is a small park but is teaming with wildlife. As we enter the park we notice a large nest in one of the larger trees on the south side of the park at the west edge of the second prairie area.  

  I didn’t bring my spotting scope or tripod on this trip but my camera does have an optical zoom of 35 which the Mfg claims to be equivalent to 840mm.  The camera does a good job and as I study the nest through the camera I can’t tell if it is inhabited or not. As me wife and I make our way to the wetlands area of the park we come across several wood peckers, Downy, Red Bellied and a Northern Flicker.

  Just before reaching the wetland area, we are able to get a good look at the nest and I’m able to take several photographs of the nest.  It’s a large stick nest but I still can’t tell if its inhabited, also noted in the area a smaller nest which looks to be composed of twigs and leaves. I’m not sure which species of bird this nest belongs to, or why any smaller bird would construct a nest within the proximity of a large hawk nest.

Camera: Canon SX30IS

  Looking closely at the image you can just make out the head of a Raptor, I believe it’s a Red Tailed Hawk! This nest is still not easy to get to but at least I have a place where I can set up my cameras and video equipment that’s not in the middle of a highway or well traveled road.

                                                            

Camera: Canon SX30IS

As we exited the park, the wife noticed a large hawk in the row of trees at the west edge of the first prairie area. I was able to capture several images of the hawk before we left the park. As we drove away from the park I looked back, in the direction where the large hawk had been perched, just in time to see the hawk take flight and head in the direction of the nest.

 What a wonderful trip, we will be visiting Ritchey Woods many more times in the following weeks and months in hopes of capturing some good images and video of the Red Tailed Hawk family in action!!!