Finally! A Nest

Visited my favorite young couple Sunday, 4/17, and here they are.

He’s on top of the nest, she’s on the limb beside the nest. (You can tell which is which by the speckled feathers. Only females have them. Males’ chests are usually pure white.)

I followed them off and on for a couple of hours, and they were busy with nest construction.  He was bringing in sticks and stuff and she was arranging things.

Occasionally, she would take off and come back with a huge stick. Then she worried with it for a long time because it was almost too big to handle.

I don’t think we’ll have eggs this season – they’re too young.  But I’m going to keep a close watch.  There are also several young, unattached males still in the area who zoom near the nest now and then. She tolerated all of them until this particular guy brought her the first stick. Then he was the man she’d been waiting for. And if one of the others gets too close, they team up and chase them away.

You can see the progress of the nest by checking earlier posts.