Cooper's Hawks Chicks, Constitution Trail, Normal, McLean County

[Bill Morgan]

Dear CILB-ers—

 

The show is about over at the two Cooper’s Hawk nests.  It’s sometimes difficult, depending on the state of the light, to tell the chicks from the adults now, and the nearly-mature chicks are spending less time *in* the nest and more time in the branches of the trees nearby.  They’re making short bursts of flight, then returning to their perches, then stretching and flapping their wings.  I think that at least nest 1 will be empty within a week; the chicks of nest 2 seem a little less advanced. 

 

But it has been great to watch them every day as I’ve passed up and down the Trail on my bicycle.  My Trail pets!

 

                For those who may have forgotten, nest 1 is on the west side of the Trail between Shelbourne and Raab, just above a rusty white garden shed; nest 2 is a mile further north on the west side of the Trail between Raab and Northtown, just about 2/10 of a mile south of Northtown, and almost aligned with the south end of a long, bluish-grey warehouse building. 

 

Good birding.

 

Bill Morgan