On Saturday, Jim and I encountered a ferruginous hawk busy with nest-building. The nest we saw being constructed is located amid sea of sagebrush atop a rock outcrop adjacent to a highway. Unfortunately, it is just inside the highway fenceline, and a road upgrade project will reach it in the coming days. The nest is doomed, but the good news is that there are plenty of better nest sites nearby, and it’s early enough that there has been no incubation involved. When we checked again yesterday, there were three ferrgs on the bluffs near the nest. I'm hopeful the female will frown upon the current home construction project and will make her selected mate pick a better location. Ferrgs typically build several alternative nests.
5 comments:
Under MBTA an active nest cannot be destroyed without a permit. Down here in Texas parts of construction projects have been delayed so until after nesting season is over. One that immediatly comes to mind involved some hawks (think they were RTs) in Dallas. A buffer zone was established around the nest and work continued outside that zone. What made it really cool was the birds became quite a hit with the construction workers and people living around the nest. There were a few articles in the Dallas Morning news about the progress of the birds and everything.
Therese,
I doubt that the construction project will actually touch the nest, but the heavy equipment will be within a matter of feet from the nest, so I expect the disturbance will cause abandonment. My presence across the highway from them was a disturbance as well.
Cat
Cat:
too bad, well as you said hopefully they will abandon the nest soon enough they can renest.
Here in Idaho, Buteo regalis is a species of "Special Concern" Could bring Highway Projects to a grinding halt. Yeah !
Those frogmouths will be just fine.
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