In late May my dentist, who knows I enjoy taking photos of hawk families, called and said there was a hawk nest outside his office.
I headed there and took photos for about 10 minutes. I was looking at the shots on my camera when Mom swooped at me so close I felt the wind from her feathers. That was the first of many warning dives she made at me.
She had two direct hits, one to my shoulder and one on the top of my head, drawing blood both times.
I went to the nest in the morning and evening and the first thing I did was locate mom.
This Cooper's hawk nest had five nestlings - the average is three to four. After two weeks the birds started to move out of the nest onto the branches of the eucalyptus tree. On the first night a young hawk couldn't get back to the nest so Animal Rescue came. Now mom had to feed only four mouths.
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The first four weeks mom did not leave sight of the nest, so dad made deliveries to the top of an electrical pole or a parking-lot light and mom would pick it up and take it to the nest, then turn around and dive at me.
Near the end of June, two of the siblings were playing on the telephone pole and one slipped on the wire and got hung up on it, upside down. For several long minutes he thrashed around crying for help.
When mom heard him, she circled around checking the situation out. She then came flying in and inverted herself, back to the ground, and flapped her wings, lifting the young one free.
At first his leg just got swollen and a little discolored and he was still getting a little part of the meals mom brought in.
I called Animal Rescue and they said it would have to be caught to help it, which might cause more trauma.
So I started taking him packrats I caught and dead road-kill birds.
I think the two stronger birds went off on hunting trips with the parents, because only two always stayed around the nest site.
By mid-July, when I went to the nest area, none of the birds was around. If one did show up, it looked around for food, then took off. So I don't know what happened to the hurt one. I just hope he makes it.
Thanks to my dentist, David, because for this project I got a new camera, a Canon EOS 7D with a 100-400mm zoom lens. But I couldn't use a tripod because Mrs. Cooper kept me on the run.
Steve Maushardt is an Oro Valley resident.
