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How cool! Great shots? And, do the sticks appear to have been cleared over the bowl area? Or, did the wind to that. I hope those two have been up there cleaning up for a new season.

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The human spirit needs places where nature has not been rearranged by the hand of man. ~Author Unknown

Great job Sally, Bville! Hi Wings!

I'm thinking from what I saw that perhaps the white object at 11:00ish was the egg remains that still has that black area (breakage?) we've previously seen? Would that even be possible?

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live well --- laugh often --- love much

Cat said in the chat that she saw Kay on the tower in fading light yesterday on the Golden Rod.  I'll try to keep my page up and watch as much as I can in case we get more nest views!

Hello all it is soo good to see the nest shot and catgirls reported sighting!!

I had the privilage of going to the Boo Ha Ha last Sat. in front of KJRH!! I got to take my granddaughters down for the trick or treating for a little while. Of course my ulterior motive was to see the tower and Kay or Jay. I was as excited or more than the kids! I even got a parking space across the street south of the tower. I opened the sunroof on the truck and had a perfect shot of the tower. There was a bird on the golden rod but not a hawk. Time to test the camera. I had to hurriedly switch to the zoom lens and got some shots of the bird (they are on my flickr). Of course the girls didn't not want to sit there (which I could have just stayed right there) so we had to go treating ,no tricks, up and down the street I got thier picture with Julie Chin, George Flickinger and Dan Threlkeld(meteroligist at KJRH).and got pics of Russell Mills.

This is all to give credit to Catgirl and the wonderful job she does. Here is a pic of the tower so you can better tell exactly how high up the nest is in that tower. It is impossible to really get the idea from the nest cam and here on the forum but it is way above the top of any trees!!. I had decided my zoom lens doesn't zoom far enough!

Here is the tower

 

I really appreciate Catgirl and her expert advice on my camera! I would need a telescope to be able to watch the tower.

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Yesterday is history
Tomorrow a mystery
Today is a gift

 

Here is a close up of the nest from the backside we never see on the cam...

 

 

 

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Yesterday is history
Tomorrow a mystery
Today is a gift

Observer:

There was a bird on the golden rod but not a hawk.

Great photos, Observer.  I'm wondering whether that bird might be a kestrel. We've seen them on the Tower in the past (though none of the captures I have show the birds from the front, as as to compare with these photos). Here is a description of a male kestrel ( http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Kestrel/id ) that seems at least partially to suit the bird in your photos:
Wings blue-gray with black spots. Tail rufous on back with a broad black subterminal band and a white or rufous tip. Tail white underneath with a few incomplete black bars. Back and rump orange to rufous, with a variable amount of black barring. Underparts pale buff to orange, with variable amount of black spotting, especially along sides. Crown blue-gray with some orange. Buffy spots with dark centers on either side of nape (back of head), making "eyespots" visible from behind.
And here's a photo of a male kestrel  from the web. http://www.hawkquest.org/HawkQuest%20-%20Learning_Center_Raptors_of_HawkQuest.shtml

Now your photos, from your Flickr site: http://www.flickr.com/photos/modelt/page6/
--I took the liberty of enlarging them:

You can see bars on the tail, above.

And maybe a hint of black on the head.

I beleive it is a kestrel.  I have seen a young male, or at least a speckled-rusty-breasted, kestrel on and around the tower over the last year of watching, and there is one picture of one in the KJRH set, too.  Very daring little birds.  I think the shots that have been posted of a bird harassing Kay on the tower are also a kestrel. I cannot figure why a kestrel is that high up, where its own nest must be, that it is defending and sharing territory with a redtail? They are cavity nesters, though they also live in crevices/holes in eaves, attics, church steeples, etc. I have wondered if it is possible that they have a nest soemwhere else on the tower, or is there a sutiable place nearby?  I don't think they normally hunt at the height that the tower is but I could be wrong.  They are normally seen bobbing their little heads and tails on fence posts, power lines, other structures, observing for rodents in the grass, or hovering over the grass to scare up food. In silloutte it is said they look like a football player with a helmet on, no neck to speak of! Easily distinguished from doves that way, doves look like bowling pins with a slender neck and head.

Fun, fun!  Now we just need more and more regular nest views!!!  Yes!!!  This is the best part of being sick/remodeling, having time to waste on the computer.

Other past kestrel visits to the Tower:
early summer, 2007

from KJRH slideshow
2-10-09:  Male kestrel, on "Heart Attack Ledge" (see no-neck, football-helmet head that Sally noted)

2-20-09:  two kestrels

2-20-09:  Female (?) kestrel

captures by Bville, from KJRH Hawk Cam

From Tuesday, 11/3 at 4:45 pm - a similar view as observer's of the backside of the nest - with the hawkcam watching the nest and Kay on the goldenrod (lower right corner).  Thanks for sharing your photos observer!!!!!

And then about 30 minutes later, I drove by again and Kay was being pestered by one of the kestrals.

Kay went through all kinds of contortions following that pesky kestral, which kept circling around her until Kay flew off to the east into the trees around 5:45 pm.

Then the next afternoon around 4:10 I spot Kay on the highest of the 3 antennas on the KJRH tower (about midway up).  She was facing north, mainly looking around to the east and north.  I wonder where Jay is?  It seems like it has been awhile since we have seen him, deja vu from last spring!

I head south on Peoria towards home, and there is Jay, on the Mazzios Tower, watching Kay!!!!

I again head towards home, but sneak a peak at the KJRH tower - Kay is gone.  I then look back at the Mazzios tower and Kay is there with Jay.


Jay takes off and circles around....

Then Jay comes in for a landing on a perch closer to Kay!
Oh how I love the look on her face - I wish the photos were clearer!




I then  headed home while they sorted out their dinner plans.