March - 2003 Hawks and Owls are nesting and raising young all around town. My pair of Great Horned Owls, right here in bustling Bartlett, have evidently gotten their young up to a point where they don't have to be brooded at night. More often than not around 3 AM, I am awakened by the male's low hooting just feet from my head. Here lately the female eventually joins him in the same tree and they exchange night views. He stays sometimes and hoots till 5:30, she has to go home to the kids. Although I have not found the nest, the crows have been making it a point to raise a ruckus everyday around a large cedar tree and yesterday I finally found a well camouflaged Great Horned roosting up against the trunk. It is nice to see such a wonderful creature in the midst of the surrounding subdivisions. Their stealth hunting has rid my 2 acres and much of the neighborhood of cats since their return. Unfortunately the Screech Owl that had came back a couple of years ago has left, hopefully of its own choosing and not as a take out meal for the Great Ones. Now subletting nests. Some years back, I found Red-shouldered Hawks nesting in a large oak tree in the Mississippi River bottoms. It was quite high above the ground and they raised young. The following year the nest went unoccupied but the location was good enough for a pair of Bald Eagles to build on it for two years before nesting and raising their own young. Since it has to be viewed from far away, it was hard to determine if anything used the huge nest the following year as the eagles moved out and built a nest that did not survived a wind storm and eventually built two other test nests before occupying the one where they are nesting at this time. The next winter a Great Horned Owl raised young at this location and now this year a Red-tailed hawk is tending young. All at the same high rise location but, just as some human habitats, for some reason this location has a high turn over rate. Such is life in an upwardly mobile society. Good Birding!!! Jeff R. Wilson OL' COOT / TLBA Bartlett Tenn. =================NOTES TO SUBSCRIBER===================== The TN-Bird Net requires you to sign your messages with first and last name, city (town) and state abbreviation. ----------------------------------------------------- To post to this mailing list, simply send email to: tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx ----------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, send email to: tn-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Topographical Maps located at http://topozone.com/find.asp * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Visit the Tennessee Ornithological Society web site at http://www.tnbirds.org * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * TN-Bird Net Owner: Wallace Coffey, Bristol, TN jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx (423) 764-3958 =========================================================