Morning Fledglings

This morning I took a cup of hot tea out on the deck to sit awhile in the nice breeze and noticed not a wildbird or squirrel was moving about. My thots were there must be a Hawk in the area.

Four Hummingbirds were sparring over the feeder on the kitchen window. Their teenie poops land on the squirrel house sitting on the deck railing below the feeder. Interesting...never seen that before!

From the trees on the next street over I could hear two baby Hawks screaming and hiss-growling to be fed. It was uncomfortable to hear them sound so distressed. After awhile their cries started moving from tree to tree when here they came gliding silently right above me over the house.

One landed in a tall pine tree in the backyard neighbors yard. He was a huge fluffy adult-size juvenile with little control over his floppy wings. He sat there and continued to scream. His nestmate answered each time and came soaring over the house and landed on top of the Red-headed Woodpecker's tree. A few years ago the wind blew the top out of the tree and it gave the young hawk a nice flat ledge to sit and rest on. The Red-headed Woodpeckers sat in nearby trees bobbing their heads and growling. They have babies in a hole in that tree.

Both young hawks continued to scream and hiss-growl. Not in unison, but back and forth, maybe a way to keep track of one another. I understand the parents continue to feed them for many more weeks after they fledge, but they never appeared.

The young Hawks made their way clumsily from tree to tree and finally soared soundlessly away.