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Catbird: Now I remember seeing that "tail difference" / wading red-tailed hawk page. That's right! They had to have been cooling off in the water... I bet that was a sight to see that rth in your birdbath! We have a small birdbath on a short pedestal with an angel sitting on it's edge with a bird in its hand... We used to see many small birds taking baths there, but we're now required to keep it dry, due to West Nile Virus...Mustn't attract mosquitos into any standing water! I miss seeing the activity there.
And with regard to Jay returning of late to the nest, I've been wondering if he's not defending the nest itself, so as to have it available again for himself and Kay to start the next family in...???

Here in IL we are allowed to have birdbaths but have to change the water at least every other day, which is easy enough to do. I just keep the hose out by it, ready to dump it out, and re-fill. I wondered the same thing, if Jay is not protecting that precious nest area. They would know if there are other hawks in the area, with their keen vision and hearing. It may be that there are others eyeing this tower! I think the home team has a psychological advantage, though, and Jay's presence there may well be an "occupied" signal to passers-by.

As to nesting again, all I know is that Tulsa seemed to be about a month or more ahead of activities in NYC, which start up in late January (based on lengthening daylight hours and minutes, triggering their pineal gland in their brain to start putting out the hormones that trigger the whole nesting, mating, rearing process), so my guess (un-educated) is that by mid to late December we should see Kay and Jay bringing nesting materials to the nest tower and start seeing breeding activity, probably not on the nest, though, but Gunit and Catgirl and Russell and George and others on the ground, may spot some high-flying sky-dancing and mating. I think for those of us whose scope is limited to the nest platform, it will be the growing pile of sticks that is our first signal. BUT this pair of hawks may have a lot more to teach us, so "prevailing wisdom" may be subject to change. ;-)

9:03 p.m. Camera switched awhile back to the S. Peoria looking north-northwest view with the river up and off to the left, and downtown to the right of that, in the distance. Pretty view. Hoping all three hawks are perched nicely for the night. I'm off... g'night all!

6:50 AM

Good morning anybody that is still around!

Camera lookimg up a wet North Peoria.

Weather:

9:27 - Camera still looking North on Peoria, still raining.  It will probably rain all day.  Good morning Observer, I am still here!  I will be in the area of the station after lunch today.  I will look in my favorite places to see what is going on, if anything.  I will let everyone know what I see.

Hi all.  I enjoy reading the posts.  Most of what I know about the "off-season" for Redtails comes from reading the NYC hawk blogs.  I know that Pale Male and Lola have their favorite perches off-season, on a few buildings where they hunt from and bide their time, they do not seem to return to the nest often until late winter when they start bringing in sticks.  They do not, to my knowledge, copulate on the nest, but rather their other regular perches in their area, so I wouldnt' expect to see Kay and Jay doing so, either.  Pale Male and Lola sometimes perch together, sometimes not, so not seeing Kay and Jay together in the off-season isn't strange, although they would be seen more often together if they are still training and caring for Thunder I would think.  With the trees leafed out it would be hard to find them perched there unless you had hours to spend like some of the watchers in NYC. It sounds like the Mazzoli tower may be one of their regular perching spots from what I've read of your posts. Good luck Tulsa hawk watchers, and please keep us informed! 

Wonderful rainy day!!  At least it is cooler but awful for hawk watching and taking pictures.
Yesterday evening I reported seeing Jay fly off into the trees - area would be behind the Ace Hardware store at 41st and Peoria (cat-a-corner to the Mazzio's Tower, which I have not seen any of them perched on for awhile).
This morning I had to work at the farmers market which is in the parking lot of the Ace Hardware.  Around 8:30 am, amid all the steady rain showers, occasionally I could hear the call of a hawk.
Then I saw one fly out from behind Ace and land on the big billboard sign at the north of their property (Lamar sign I mentioned last night).  It looked like Jay as the chest area always appears more white from a distance.  My daughter stopped by around 9:15 and got my binoculars and camera out of my car and she went and took a few pictures for me.  I will post them later today on my flickr site - I'll let you know when they are up. 
The pictures will answer what one red-tail hawk does in the rain!!!
At different times over about 1 1/2 hours Jay (my preliminary guess from the wet beraggled pictures of the hawk!!) perched on various objects - from the billboard flew east across Peoria and sat on utlity pole next to the street, then to light pole in the FoodPyramid parking lot, then back to a different utility pole and then flew off to the east and disappeared behind WholeFoods/FoodPyramid area.

Hi gang sorry haven't been posting much but life's crazy.

Thought I spotted some "hawk-like" activity on the tower so I grabbed my new camera and clicked off a couple of shots. Wasn't really sure until I got them into Photoshop but yep... there's an RTH on the tower. I believe it's Thunder... tail looks brown to me. Here's a couple of the shots... she appears to be preening.

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(8-{)
Russell Mills
Online Content Director
KJRH-TV Channel 2
PO Box 2 Tulsa, OK 74101
(918) 748-1560

The FIRST and ONLY station in Oklahoma to broadcast local news in HD!

5:24pm Camera is on the big beautiful sky out there above Tulsa, Oklahoma! Looks like S. Peoria, looking north, with downtown on the left in the distance. Pretty clouds, with a patch of blue sky peeking through. Russell, great new camera you have there! Excellent pics of one of our hawks... It might be my computer, but the tail looks really red... I don't know. It's actually a very rusty red, and almost matches the rust on the ledge that the hawk is sitting on. Am I the only one getting all this red?.... Anybody else? What a nice treat, though, Russell!!! Thank you so much! And don't apologize about not posting... Life is crazy off and on here too, and I'm sure with many of us... We do love your posts, though, whenever they appear. : ) catgirl: Looking forward to your new Jay pics! How fun for you... I'm so jealous!!!... that you got such a great viewing of him today in the rain!... Thanks for the behavioral / geographical movements descriptions! Much appreciated!

Socal: It looks red and short to me as well, shorter than Thunder's brown one too. Didn't bobdmac say that the juveniles have longer tails for "training wheels?"

Russell and socal, 

I want it to be Thunder, but it looks solid rusty red to me, too, and lacks the bars of the immature's tail, though the red tail probably has one terminal thin black band, I don't see it at all.  At least its one of the KJRH hawks!  Happy to see it.

Hello, friends. Well, the images as displayed on my computer were rather dark. I adjusted the brightness, to show more detail, but did nothing to the color. (How the brightness might relate to color, I do not know.) Anyway....
 



Thank you, Russell!

I think the tail also looks red and since I spotted who I thought was Jay around the area several times today, I tend to vote for Jay.

In the evening - 7:30-8:40 observed Jay on the side antennas of the tower.  Of course took a few more pictures, including some of similar view as Russell's, but I do not know if will get those uploaded tonight or not.  When I left at dusk, he was still sitting there preening.
Here's a link to one of the latest 12 photos from this morning.  Most I already trimmed up and zoomed in some, as takes up much much less of flickr storage!!
So here is what one red tail hawk does in the rain - from light mist to downpours!!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cheryls_camera/2654895110/in/set-72157605689468422/

Poor bedraggled guy...I love the wet white head crest, worse than hat hair anyday. These are wondeful, catgirl. And you climbed right up on the tower to get this close? :-)