The past three springs, a pair of red-tailed hawks raised a total of four chicks in a nest just a few yards from the office building where I work in Braintree, Mass. Views from the third and fourth floors resulted in a few decent photos and a video. The hawks have been flying around the neighborhood the past few days, but the twigs they are gathering are not to renovate the old nest. The hawks are moving on up.

The new nest is still visible from the office window, but it's further away across the street. I think there still will be photo ops, but they will be different than last year. Digiscoping might be the way to go this year. This photo is a digiscope (Televue 85 telescope and Canon S330 digital camera) of one of last year's chicks, and I think it was roosted in the tree which is the site of the new nest. I got the necessary attachments for my S45, so that's my digiscoping camera this year.

Toward the end of last year's nesting, it looked there were a lot of bugs flying around the old nest, and the evergreen tree had started to turn yellow from all of the guano. Perhaps the hawks escape some of the bugs by moving, and there's no doubt that the old tree is greener than it was eight months ago. It won't be quite the same, but I suppose it is progress.