Saturday, July 3, 2010

A Marsh Hawk Nest

Looked for the marsh hawk's nest in the Great Meadows. It was in the very midst of the sweet-gale (which is three feet high), occupying an opening only a foot or two across.

We had much difficulty in finding it again, but at last nearly stumbled on to a young hawk.

There was one as big as my fist, resting on the bare, flat nest in the sun, with a great head, staring eyes, and open gaping or panting mouth, grayish-white down as yet.

Another had crawled a foot one side amid the bushes for shade or safety, more than half as large again, with small feathers and a more angry, hawk-like look.

The old birds were gone and saw us not. Their callow young lie panting under the sweet-gale and rose bushes in the swamp, waiting for their parents to fetch them food.

H. D. Thoreau, Journal, July 3, 1860

Looked for the marsh hawk’s nest in the Great Meadows.  See June 16, 1860 (“Channing found a marsh hawk's nest on the Great Meadows this afternoon, with three eggs considerably developed.”) See also A Book of the Seasons,  by Henry Thoreau, the Marsh Hawk (Northern Harrier)



1 comment:

  1. Having considerable doubts as to whether any American writer who has spoken of the Marsh Hawk ever saw one of its nests, I will here describe one.


    It was made of dry grass, and measured between seven and eight inches in its internal diameter, with a depth of two inches and a half, while its external diameter was twelve inches. The grass was pretty regularly and compactly disposed, especially in the interior, on which much care seemed to have been bestowed. No feathers or other materials had been used in its construction, not even a twig.



    The young are at first covered with soft yellowish-white down, but in a few weeks shew the brownish and ferruginous tints of their female parent; the young males being distinguishable from the females by their smaller size.

    J J Audubon

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