The Hawks Are Back

Yes, that’s right folks, the hawks are back!! I don’t know where this registers on the Bizarrometer, but your Center City Correspondent is more than slightly bemused by this story.  Mrs. CCC just thinks I'm weird to be so interested in this.


One morning about a year ago, I was walking to work and there were two guys standing on the sidewalk outside the Franklin Institute looking intently at something. As I got closer I saw a large bird of prey, a hawk, on top of the biplane model, tearing at something he (she?) had clutched in his talons. I mean, he was really ripping at it with guts all over the place. The plat du jour was pigeon (I thought that was odd because that’s exactly what I had one night in Paris, honest). A bunch of smaller birds were squawking at him; all he had to do was spread his wings and the little birds backed off. One of the bystanders told me that it was a red-tailed hawk and that a pair of them has taken up residence on the window sill on the second story of the Franklin Institute. The sill wasn’t quite big enough for their nest and it kept toppling down to the sidewalk. So some industrious people at the Institute built a platform on the window sill and replaced the nest. The adults seemed OK with the addition, and they completed their nest in time for Momma hawk to lay her eggs. About a month later the blessed event arrived and the chicks were hatched. For the first few weeks they could not leave the nest, and had to be fed by Mom and Dad. So they scoured the surrounding neighborhood for grub, and I can tell you there was not a mouse or pigeon to be seen for blocks around the Institute. For the next few weeks, as the chicks developed, they could be seen hopping around the nest or on the sill. They could not fly much, just a little flutter now and then, but as they quickly matured, they would fly and hop around the roof and ledges of the Institute. One of them tried to fly and landed in the middle of 20th Street and had to be rescued by folks from the Animal Shelter. He was back in the nest in 24 hours. After about a month, the chicks were flying around the area and at about two months old, they had flown the coop. These are impressive animals that do two things well, hunt and procreate. Their hunting technique is to sit in a tree or building scouring the landscape and when they spot prey, they do a power dive directly down, spread their wings at the last moment to stop their dive and grab the prey with their claws. Very efficient hunters and killers.

Their story was picked up by the local press, and I made it a point to hang out on the corner with a few of the Hawkaholics, and we were treated to a lot of activity almost every day. Activity in the nest was captured by a webcam that the Institute had set up and is available online at the link below.

So the adults are back and a few days ago the first egg was laid. I guess we’ll have another spring of the red-tailed hawks. So why is this bizarre? I lived in the suburbs for over 50 years and never saw a nest of hawks. I come to the city and I’m treated to a nature show, right in my own neighborhood. Weird, huh? Kudos to the Institute for the home makeover and the webcam. Check the camera over the next few weeks. Right now they’re just incubating the eggs but in a few weeks there will be hungry mouths to feed and flying and hunting lessons to be learned. Stay tuned.



http://www.ustream.tv/channel/the-franklin-institute-haw-cam