Swainson's Hawk

I was out all evening on Monday, 7 July 2014, on Don Stiles' annual Bluebird Route trip. Don has been a Bluebird Monitor for about 30 years, so has great experience with Bluebirds - also with Tree Swallows and an occasional Wren that also use the wooden nest boxes! His route is along some of the backroads SW of the city. This time, we didn't see any baby Bluebirds, as all the young ones had already fledged and none of the pairs had a second clutch. We did see nest boxes with tiny Tree Swallow eggs in the nest, and also several nest boxes that had baby Tree Swallows in, around 12 days old. One box had 12 babies in - obviously belonging to two adult females! Can't imagine how they will all cope inside the box when they get bigger. Nice to see a very distant Baltimore Oriole - my first for this year - and various other birds, too. Near the beginning of the trip, this Swainson's Hawk flew and landed at the top of a tree, way down the road from us, but still within camera reach. Another great evening, Don - thanks so much for taking a few of us out with you!

"Swainson’s Hawks soar on narrow wings or perch on fence posts and irrigation spouts. These elegant gray, white, and brown hawks hunt rodents in flight, wings held in a shallow V, or even run after insects on the ground. In fall, they take off for Argentine wintering grounds—one of the longest migrations of any American raptor—forming flocks of hundreds or thousands as they travel." From AllAboutBirds.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/swainsons_hawk/id

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swainson's_hawk

According to the weather forecast, it looks like we are in for more very hot weather - love the sunshine, but can't cope with the high temperatures.