community.kjrh.com

Bville: Just spent some catch-up time at your magnificent map. You have done (and continue to do) an absolutely superb job with this. Thank you for taking it on and doing it so beautifully and faithfully.

Catgirl!!!!! Visits to the nest?????   Yeah!!!!

Please Russell, can you show us the nest sometimes?  I wonder if they will come at certain times of day more often than others?  Those of you who watched them the first year through last spring, do you remember their activity pattern?

 

This afternoon on my way home, I decided to check the KJRH tower.  gunit's post (WELCOME BACK!!!!!) made me start wondering when Kay and Jay might start making return visits to the nest.
And sure enough, there was Jay sitting on his favorite high perch, the upper pole on the side of the tower.  After watching him preen for several minutes, I decided to park a couple of blocks away and watch for a little while.  As I drove, I noticed what looked possibly like another hawk circling off to the west.  I parked and got out with my camera - and WOW, its flying closer and closer to the tower!!!

Within a few seconds, Jay takes off and circles around to join Kay.

I have posted a few of the pictures from their nest visit on my flickr site  (www.flickr.com/photos/cheryls_camera).  If you are looking at my photostream, it does not upload them in order and I have not figured out how to change the order on that.  But at the right hand side there are picture links to the sets of pictures - and in the sets the pictures are arranged in order.  So for example to see this series of photos of the nest visit, you can click on the KJRH hawk family set, and then on its page click on "detail" as opposed to thumbnails, and then they are on page 15.  whew, may be too complicated but makes the reading easier!!

I have also recently uploaded a few new bald eagle pictures - in case you missed it on palemaleirregularsblogspot.com, I captured an unexpected photo!! --not what I thought I was getting when I pressed the shutter!!!  They are also on my photostream, but also can be viewed through the "Tulsa Urban Bald Eagles" set.
And a few random RT hawks that I have spotted recently, including today a repeat appearance of a RT near the eagles' perches (the billboard RT) - Tulsa Urban Wildlife set.

Once both hawks were on the nesting platform, I could see the head of one of them bobbing up and down, like it was rearranging some of those troublesome sticks
I drove back to the station just as Jay prepared to leave.  He took off to the south but quickly circled around to the northwest and disappeared into distant trees (or his flight path was blocked from view by the trees).  Kay watched him leave and then departed on the same flight path as Jay a minute or so later, disappearing from view among the distant treetops.

Catgirl: Glory be! They are back! We do need to lobby Russel for some nest cam time!

Maybe we also need to start a new thread for the KJRH Redtail Hawk 2008/2009 nesting season.

I can't stop smiling! This is SUCH great news!

Catgirl on her Flickr site says those things on the tower cam are wasps! Do wasps sting redtails? Does anyone know if the humans' refurbishing of the KJRH tower this summer included the rumored microphone?

I e-mailed Donnegal about the KJRH nest activities and the sky dancing last week, and asked her if this was really early for courtship and nest tending. She replied: "Hurrah! As to early... Well, I'm thinking that in Tulsa, you need to get your babies out of the nest and well along before it gets too bloody hot. Do you remember when Thunder hatched? I can work back from there. Also what Kay and Jay are currently doing is adding to the nest which can go on for a bit. Also Jay has to present at least two nest sites to Kay so she can have a choice. Lets hope she chooses the TV tower! Some believe that nesting in RTs cycles with the birth of prey litters. I don't know when there are major births of rabbits, squirrels, voles, etc. in Oklahoma but I'm betting it's before the grass burns off in summer. Pigeons and rats reproduce whenever there is enough food, though in cold climes in winter the babies don't always make it.
I should maybe do a blog on this. Hope catgirl sends me the photos. I did alert her to keep an eye peeled as it (nest building etc) could happen at any time as they were so much earlier than NYC hawks last year." (So, does anyone recall Thunder's birthday?)

7:19. Dark and rainy in Tulsa!  Cam on Peoria? I can see Blockbuster and perhaps the QuikMart, too much distortion from the rain glare.

Yeah Catgirl!! Awesome shots on the tower! And I am glad to hear from Donna that this is probably early courtship for the two.  And we know they are in the area, working on the tower, still bonded and healthy!

 

Thunder's birthday is March 31.  The Kay and Jay slideshow indicates that the eggs were laid by March 3 (actually it says May 3 but I know that must be an error and mean March!!).  She fledged May 24th (besides the earlier one on the 19th?!).

Bville:

Gunit:

ps - We saw the hawk at J D Metcalf again last evening.

While I was looking for that particular sighting locale, I wondered if it was indeed the J D Metcalfe Recreation Area, since you had said something about woods. (I've got a hiker icon marking the Area on the Map.) So does this area have hiking/walking trails? I guess this instance supports the marking and labeling of parks, lakes, and such areas on our maps. Thanks again for those locations.

Yes, there are walking trails, all flat, no hiking.  There is a wooded area adjacent to the trails and neighborhoods on the other side. There are no tails in the wooded areas.  It is just a flood control area.  I guess they call it recreation because people fish in the ponds.  Lots of squirrles and critters, good hunting for hawks.  Most of the waking trail is on City of Tulsa property with the other trails on U S Corps of Engineers property.

Catbird:

Catgirl: Glory be! They are back! We do need to lobby Russel for some nest cam time! Maybe we also need to start a new thread for the KJRH Redtail Hawk 2008/2009 nesting season. I can't stop smiling! This is SUCH great news!

Excellent suggestion, Catbird! A new thread for a new chapter in the lives of Kay, Jay [Thunder?] ... and their fans. How's about one of those photos of Kay and Jay at the nest yesterday to accompany the first post on the new thread? Catgirl, since you posted those new, hopeful photos at the nest site, maybe you should do the honors? You could copy a photo plus your post of that observation on the new thread? This calls for a leap of faith! Ready, Gang........Catgirl, we're right behind you!
DRUMROLL.............

Bville:

Catbird:

Catgirl: Glory be! They are back! We do need to lobby Russel for some nest cam time! Maybe we also need to start a new thread for the KJRH Redtail Hawk 2008/2009 nesting season. I can't stop smiling! This is SUCH great news!

Excellent suggestion, Catbird! A new thread for a new chapter in the lives of Kay, Jay [Thunder?] ... and their fans. How's about one of those photos of Kay and Jay at the nest yesterday to accompany the first post on the new thread? Catgirl, since you posted those new, hopeful photos at the nest site, maybe you should do the honors? You could copy a photo plus your post of that observation on the new thread? This calls for a leap of faith! Ready, Gang........Catgirl, we're right behind you!
DRUMROLL.............

 

 

I'm in CATGIRL CATGIRL: RAH!! RAH!! RAH!!!!!!!!     

More from Donnegal/Donna about Kay and Jay: "I don't remember ever sighting PM (Pale Male) and L (Lola) on the nest together in mid October. I have them visiting separately in December. PM will bring a few twigs in December, maybe. By January twigging will happen more often and they'll start sky dancing. Lola is notoriously uninterested in bringing twigs herself, she can really be a diva, though some of the other females in town are big on it. Lola tends to come and check out what PM has done. And if she doesn't like where he's positioned it, she changes it. The first sighted copulation for PM and L is usually within the first two weeks of February. Kay and Jay's schedule using Thunder's hatch year, looks to be about a month earlier, give or take, than Pale Male and Lola's schedule. And PM and L tended to be a number of weeks earlier than the other nests in NYC. It sounds like Kay and Jay are very well bonded, really like each other, and like to hang out together when they get a chance. I love getting to know RT pairs as they do tend to have worked out their relationship and how they do things in a very individualized way. They are so full of surprises. I can't wait to hear when Kay and Jay start seriously courting! I would think probably December at the latest. Though who knows, we don't know how long they court before copulation."