I haven't been able to get any birding in for what seems like ages, but
this was really exciting ...

On Sunday afternoon (April 4th) I was visiting my friend who lives on
Serpentine Way in Colesville.  Behind his house is a thin strip of woods
through which a thread of the Paint Branch runs.  We were looking out
acrpss his back porch at the wind thrashing the trees around and ended
up witnessing quite an amazing sight -- a pair of hawks, which I believe
to be Red-Shouldered, mating!

The two hawks were flying back and forth through the trees over about a
fifty-foot wide swath.  At one point we thought we saw one of them
carrying a stick in their beak, and then, when the wind blew the trees
just right, we were in fact able to see a nest built in the crook of a
tree about three stories up from the river, where three branches came
together at the trunk.  We opened the door and could hear one of the
hawks calling to the other. The caller, who turned out to be the female,
flew to a horizontal branch directly in line with my friend's porch, and
right away, her mate appeared and mounted her.  Then they sat side by
side for a while before each flew off in opposite directions.  We'd lose
sight of one or the other briefly and then catch one of them sitting on
the nest while the other flew off to the right, then the left.  Then the
female went back to that branch, called, the male came to her again, and
they mated again!

Not only had I never seen hawks "get it on" <G> before, but I had no
idea of the sounds they made while they did it; the female continued the
steady call with longer breaks in it; "EH!     EH!     EH!" while the
male (as he was atop her), gave out a repeated staccato
"Eheheheheheheh!" which ended when he was done.  I gather that's
Red-Shoulder Speak for "oh baby, oh baby, oh baby!" ;D

I didn't have a watch or clock around, but I think we watched them for
about forty minutes, and would estimate that the two matings took place
about fifteen minutes apart.  I think they were Red-Shouldered because
they were fairly small, had kind of reddish coloring on their heads and
upper body, and distinctly white and black speckled lower bodies with
contrasting stripes on their tails.  I *know* they weren't Red-Tails by
size or appearance, and Sharpies and Coopers aren't as contrasty -- or
as dark on top, at least in my experience, so that leaves me with the
Red-Shouldered conclusion.

Apparently there was love in the air, because in another tree nearby a
squirrel was busily bringing leaves into a large woodpecker hole,
readying his own love nest.

Is anyone here in charge of the BBS for the Snowden's Mill section of
Colesville so I can let them know exactly where the nest is?

Laura Appelbaum,
Cloverly, MD

=======================================================================
To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to 
with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey
=======================================================================