Belated Red-tailed Hawk news

I received the following e-mail from Marge last Sunday. She is one of the hawk watchers from Green-Wood Cemetery.

Subject: Red-tailed Hawk Nest Down
Date: 9/24/06

Sad news. The Red-tailed Hawk nest, that has been established for over 20 years, is no longer in existence.

I volunteered at the cemetery today, and I did my rounds afterwards. I went to the hawk area and I always look at the nest out of habit. I saw nothing. I went to the tree and found all the twigs and nesting material at the base of the tree and in the road. I can't tell you how sad that made me. I'm wondering what weather condition lately could have knocked it out of the tree? I don't remember anything severe lately, do you? It surely withstood many harsh storms over the years. The good thing is that it wasn't nesting season and their were no young in the nest.

I'm hoping now that our red-tails return and make a new nest somewhere else in the cemetery. I only saw one mature red tail flying around today.

Marge

The wind had been calm for the previous week. It's possible that the nest had just gotten to large for the location. Also, I read that their nests need regular maintanence. Perhaps over the year that it went unused it became unstable. I wouldn't be too concerned as the pair has plenty of time to rebuild.