Last night CalTrans was working from at least 9 PM to well after 1 AM, 50 to 75 feet from the tree where the Red Tailed Hawks are nesting. I got a call from Peter Jones, the PR guy from CalTrans, first thing this morning. He said a couple of biologists would be in the area to observe and make recommendations regarding the nesting hawks. (Shouldn't that have happened yesterday, especially after our conversation, Wednesday?)
I told Jones where CalTrans worked last night, pointed out the photo I posted early this morning, and said I had not yet seen the hawks today. It's not unusual for the adults to be away from the nest hunting when they've got chicks to feed. However, this is a new pair of adults hawks using the nest this year, so we are concerned about construction noise and light spooking them.
Around noon, I saw one of the adults fly in and out of the nest a couple of times. It walked around the edge, looking into the center, but exhibited no feeding behavior. When it left the nest, it flew to a tree in between the north and southbound lanes of the 2 Freeway where it likely could keep an eye on the nest. It was very aware that I was watching through binoculars. When I would put the binoculars down, it would fly back to the nest. When it realized I was watching it in the nest again, making eye contact with me, it would fly to the nearby tree, trying to distract me from the nest. I put the binoculars away after 10 minutes to not stress the hawk further.
