Mr. Silly Posted July 20, 2018 Share #1 Posted July 20, 2018 Growing up DDT was widely used pesticide. I guess it did a descent job killing things but it would get into animals systems. When an animal higher up the food chain ate the DDT contaminated animal the toxins would transfer. When the DDT toxins would get into the systems of birds like hawks, the shells of their eggs were too thing and they'd get crushed in their nests when their mother sat on them. As a result, growing up I never saw a hawk in the wild. DDT was banned and the hawk population rebounded. There is a water tower a block to the north of where I live and for the last 4 or 5 years there has been a nesting pair behind one of the cell panels on the tower. I love watching them glide on the air currents. A number of times I've seen them swoop on down and capture a meal. During the summer you can hear the two adults and babies screech. It is a wonderful sound of summer not unlike the buzz of the cicada. Mrs. Silly just called. She was driving back to work after letting Lucy out for a bathroom break. She said she saw the female in the dead road by the curb. The news was devastating. 5 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kzoo Posted July 20, 2018 Share #2 Posted July 20, 2018 Circle of life... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JerrySTL ★ Posted July 20, 2018 Share #3 Posted July 20, 2018 8 minutes ago, Kzoo said: Circle of life... Likely the circle of car tires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kzoo Posted July 20, 2018 Share #4 Posted July 20, 2018 Just now, JerrySTL said: Likely the circle of car tires. Or windshield Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Prophet Zacharia Posted July 20, 2018 Share #5 Posted July 20, 2018 Or a really big mosquito. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jsharr ★ Posted July 20, 2018 Share #6 Posted July 20, 2018 That sucks. We had a large number of hawks and owls in our hood, but the city somehow let the floodgates of apartment building open (someone in a zoning meeting screwed up one time) and hundreds of acres of woods and fields were plowed under. We had a similar pair of hawks that nested on a water tower near us. I watched them hunt and saw them take snakes, other birds and rodents before. Beautiful creatures. Sad to see them go, but the wheels of progress kill anything that gets in their way. Condolences to the Silly family and the Hawk family from the sharr family. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kirby Posted July 20, 2018 Share #7 Posted July 20, 2018 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MickinMD ★ Posted July 20, 2018 Share #8 Posted July 20, 2018 Sorry to hear that. For several years, I had a pair of robins who made a nest in the crevice near my backyard porch light - that I seldom turn on. They initially would try to chase me away when I walked to the porches door - just a few feet from the nest with chirping chicks - but as the years passed they realized I was no threat and the fly-bys stopped. But I didn't get them this year. I guess a similar thing jas happened. A wild bird's life is fraught with danger! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Silly Posted July 21, 2018 Author Share #9 Posted July 21, 2018 It was quiet when I took Lucy for a walk this morning; we couldn't hear the screech from the hawks. The silence was deafening. ? I was looking up at the nest behind the cell panel on the water tower. It was hard to tell but it looked empty so maybe this year's chicks had already matured. I guess that is something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scrapr ★ Posted July 21, 2018 Share #10 Posted July 21, 2018 21 hours ago, MickinMD said: But I didn't get them this year. I guess a similar thing jas happened. A wild bird's life is fraught with danger! maybe they retired and moved to Fla? sometimes the simpliest answer is best 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr. Silly Posted September 23, 2020 Author Share #11 Posted September 23, 2020 To update this story. We had a nesting pair of hawks up in the water tower the last two years. Perhaps it was the juvenile that was hit. I don't know, I was just glad to see and hear the hawks again. I was reminded of this story yesterday when Lucy and I were walking. We past the water tower and we startled the female hawk who had just captured her lunch; a chipmunk. As she flew away, she dropped the chipmunk who quickly scampered into some shrubs. The worrying thing though is that they changed out the cell panels on the water tower the hawks used for their nest. The old panels were about 3 feet out from structure of the tower. There were some some supports near the bottom to hold the sticks the hawks use to make the nest. The new panels have maybe a 1 foot space from the tower with no supports to hold the nest. I don't know what the hawks will do to build their home next year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maddmaxx ★ Posted September 23, 2020 Share #12 Posted September 23, 2020 I have a hawk family across the street in a tall tree. One of these days they are going to go for one of my cats. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Randomguy Posted September 23, 2020 Share #13 Posted September 23, 2020 On 7/20/2018 at 1:08 PM, Prophet Zacharia said: Or a really big mosquito. Or terminal raptor PRI. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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