Tree taken down with Cooper’s hawk nest

moss

moss

Been here much more than a while
Location
Carlisle, Massachusetts, U.S.
A huge open grown red oak was craned out of a yard in eastern Massachusetts. As pieces were being fed into a chipper a sharp-eyed ground worker noticed 5 Cooper’s hawk young on the piece. Two were crushed but three were alive. They were checked out by a raptor rehabber and the next day I climbed a white oak within a hundred feet of the former nest tree. After creating a new nest I put the young in and the mother came in within minutes after I pulled my line and started feeding her young.

The owner of the tree service (40 years in the biz) was very concerned about the welfare of the hawklets and spent the morning as my ground support. All of the knots tied on the tail of my rope to bring things up were excellent, not a surprise.


-AJ
 
Great job and video Andrew. On a tree job a couple of weekends ago, the HO and her kids had been most concerned with a robin's nest with some chicks in it. Because I was coming to skin out and fall the tree it was in on the weekend coming, she climbed up the tree herself (it was in some lower branches) and relocated the nest to another backyard tree, chicks and all before I arrived. When the mother robin didn't show up for a while, the HO got the idea of playing some robin chick calls etc. she found on a birding website (something like Cornell ornithology) on her laptop. Momma apparently came right away. Not sure if anyone has used that idea for calling parents to a relocated nest but I thought it was really inventive of the lady - her young kids were thrilled when they saw the robin feeding the chicks. Cheers all.
 
Great job Andrew!

I found a Sapsucker nest in a tree that I was taking down. We lowered the section with the hollow, finished taking the tree down and then lashed the hollow to a neighboring tree. The mother Sapsucker came right away.

Just yesterday I delayed felling a dead Tulip poplar because we noticed a wood pecker nest in the top of the tree.
 
Treezybreez said:
Great job Andrew!

I found a Sapsucker nest in a tree that I was taking down. We lowered the section with the hollow, finished taking the tree down and then lashed the hollow to a neighboring tree. The mother Sapsucker came right away.

Just yesterday I delayed felling a dead Tulip poplar because we noticed a wood pecker nest in the top of the tree.
Click to expand...

Nicely done on both accounts. I've had some calls from people about to have tree work asking if I could help them move an active nest. I tell them flat out it's breaking federal law to disturb an active nest. If it's not an emergency removal just wait a couple weeks til the young are fledged. The only exempt species (off the top of my head) would be non-native English house sparrow, rock pigeon, starling, and probably mute swan, maybe another one or two.

I suspect a lot if not most tree workers do not know this. It's technically a "stop work" when an active nest is discovered. There is no enforcement unless a bystander in the know calls state or federal environmental police. Unfortunately some red-tailed hawk young were put through a chipper intentionally a couple years ago in my area, crane was in play, on-site foreman knew the law but didn't want to stop work.

Ideally the way this would work right is that the person doing the initial evaluation would be aware of May-June nesting season (depending on how north or south the area) and spend a couple minutes listening, watching and using binoculars on trees to be removed. Birds are notorious for hiding their nests well to protect eggs and young from predators so it is difficult to rule out nesting activity. Once work starts it becomes obvious there is a nest, parents freak out and make a ruckus.
-AJ
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

New threads New posts

Back
Top Bottom