The Southeast side Nest Trifecta

About a month ago I promised an update on the recently discovered nest, now known as nest two. Yes, three hawk nests have been discovered on the southeast side of Indianapolis! The nests are numbered in order of their location heading away from town on I74. All three nests are located within a few hundred feet of the inbound lanes of I74.

The first nest, located by Jonathan Renshaw, is in a newer housing addition. This is of some concern as the housing addition still has many open lots near the nest. The nest isn’t located on property belonging to any of the home owners.

                                                              Camera: Canon SX30IS

                                                   

Nest two, the nest I first wrote about a month or so ago, is located les than a mile from nest one. This nest is the only nest that is known to be active as of this date. Looking closely at this image a Red Tailed Hawk can just be seen peering over the edge of the nest.

                                        

                                                    Camera: Canon SX30IS

Nest three, located less than 1000’ from nest two, was just discovered by me a few days ago while trying to locate nest one. This nest is far off the road in a fenced area which makes it hard to view. I believe this nest could also be active but I need to view the nest  with my spotting scope to be sure.

                                                  

                  Camera: Canon SX30IS                                   

Red Tailed Hawks have been known to build decoy nests. Bald Eagles will also build more than one nest. I’m not sure what is gained by constructing multiple nests, it seems like allot of extra work for the birds.  These extra nests may not go to waste as other birds may use the nest. Great Horned Owls have been known to recycle unused hawk nests. I will be checking these nests over the next few months and reporting here.

Below is a link to a map with the locations of the three southeast side nests.

Southeast side Hawk Nest map

Island Girl, the amazing Tundra Peregrine Falcon

  Island Girl is a Tundra Peregrine Falcon, the last GPS tagged Tundra in the Southern Cross Project. Tundra Peregrines make one of the longest migrations in the bird world, around 8,000 miles or more!!! Island Girl has one of the longest, from the southern tip of Chile to an area beyond the North Western Passages very near Greenland! Island Girl just started her trek to her northern hunting grounds.

 Some people will say, that’s nice but Island Girl doesn’t travel through Indiana. That’s true but other Tundra Peregrine Falcons have. One such Tundra Peregrine Falcon was presented to a local wildlife rehabilitator a little over a year ago. The tundra had a bad leg injury which with the help of the vets and Kathy at UTOPUIA Wildlife healed nicely. In fact the falcon did so well we were able to determine the Falcon is a female. She laid several eggs near the end of her rehab before leaving UTOPIA Wildlife!!!

                                    Female Tundra Peregrine Falcon for rehab.

 The healed Falcon was turned over to a local falconer for passage training.  Passage training conditions a rehabilitated Falcon for life in the wild. It brings back hunting skills and muscle tone which may be reduced or lost after a long rehab. I hope this beautiful bird and Island Girl both have long productive lives. The Peregrine Falcon, the fastest bird on the planet never ceases to amaze us as we  learn more about them!!!

Want to learn more about the Tundra Peregrine Falcon or follow the long migration of Island Girl?

 Click the Island Girl link below.

Island Girl

Bald Eagles alive and ????

   

Bald Eagles are defiantly on the road to recovery, or are they?!?  Bald Eagles are being seen in places where they have not been seen in several decades! DNR and many wildlife rehabilitators are receiving calls from the public about these large birds which the caller knows or believes to be an eagle. Bald Eagles have been seen in downtown Indianapolis and on the Indy North side. More than 100 active Bald Eagle nests are believed to exist in Indiana and at least 3 are known to exist in Marion County!

  In winter Bald and Golden Eagles migrate south in search open waters. Eagles can be found near power plants where warm water discharge from the power plant keeps the river, near the power plant, free of ice. In winter, its common place to see a Bald Eagle standing on the edge of the ice watching the open water or eating a recently caught fish.

Fish is a large part of an eagles diet but not the only source of meat for eagles. 

Bald Eagles will eat almost anything they can catch, including ducks, rodents, snakes, and carrion. Carrion, the carcass of a dead animal, can be a real problem for Bald Eagles and other carrion eating animals. An eagle finding a dead deer, duck or other dead wildlife may be finding a death trap! Lead from bullets and shotgun slugs found in dead or sick animals is believed to be a large part of the problem. In addition, a large number of Bald Eagles brought to wildlife rehabilitators are the victims of gunshot wounds.   Nearly 50% of the Bald Eagles treated in some wildlife rehabilitation centers have been found to have high levels of toxic lead in their body.

                            http://www.iowadnr.gov/files/lead/eagles_lead.pdf

  Lead isn’t the only problem for the eagles! The chemicals used in illegal drug production are also becoming a problem for wildlife!!! Recently a 23 year old bald eagle found near Brown County Indiana was brought into a local wildlife rehabilitator. The eagle was in bad shape and later died. A necropsy was performed on the bald eagle. The people performing the necropsy noticed a strong odor of toluene coming form inside the eagle body.  It was later learned the eagle had been found not far from where an illegal drug setup was located.

 Add to all of this, the recent delisting of the Bald Eagle…… Yes I know delisting is a good thing or is it?!? A recent document outlines the “Taking” of Bald Eagles. Yes you can get a permit to kill(take) a Bald Eagle!!!!

            http://www.fws.gov/midwest/MidwestBird/eaglepermits/index.html

Jackson County Bald Eagle Nests

For more than a year I have been making the trip from Indianapolis to Jackson county near Starved Hollow to visit a Bald Eagle nest. Actually there are other places to visit in the area including one of my favorite places to go shooting(camera), Muscatatuck NWR. 

Last year the Starved Hollow nest was active, although I don’t know if the pair was productive.

This year I started looking for eagle activity around the Starved Hollow nest in December, but didn’t see any activity. I drove around the area and located a second nest just outside Brownstown. The Brownstown nest looked smaller than the Starved Hollow nest which could mean it’s a new nest.

Starved Hollow nest  Camera: Canon SX30IS

I visited both nests again in early March looking for activity. At the Starved Hollow nest no Eagles were seen, this is the time of year when the pair should be incubating the eggs and feeding each other. I left the Starved Hollow nest and drove to the Brownstown nest area. Several Bald Eagles were seen hunting in this area.

A week or so ago the wife and I visited the area again. As before the Starved Hollow nest was empty and no Bald Eagle activity was seen in the area. This time the Brownstown nest looked completed but it also didn’t have any activity and no Bald Eagles were seen in the area.

                                                 Brownstown nest  Camera: Canon SX30IS 

Why I carry a camera almost everywhere.

The wife and I needed to pick up some parts for our kayaks. We headed to one of the large east side malls. We couldn’t find the items and left the mall empty handed. As we neared the east parking lot I noticed a large hawk sitting on a power pole. I reached for my camera and started shooting.  

                                                     Camera:   Canon SX30IS                     
                                          

Second, as I have said in this blog has stated before, “Raptors are everywhere”

The last place I expected to see a Red Tailed Hawk was at the mall today!

Time and time again I see Raptors in places where I’ve not seen them before.

Third, how many times have you been out and seen something and said “I wish I had a picture of that. Too many times of that myself, has taught me to keep a camera close when I’m away from home.

I’ve had people ask me, why do I always have a camera bag?

First and foremost is, “You cannot get this quality of image from a cell phone camera.”

When engineers figure out how to incorporate a 500mm lens into a box the size of a cell phone I will leave my camera bag at home!