Without the Plucking Post, there would be no observations. On or about 15 March of this year a dead Douglas Fir fell over the Collin Creek Trail. In a day or two the overhanging trunk was removed from the trail. But the remaining trunk, on the north side of the trail and adjacent to it, remained. The trunk was about 7 inches in diameter and about 9 feet from the ground. The close proximity to the trail proved critical to our later observations and photographs. The structure became the “Plucking Post.”
I heard the Cooper’s Hawks in April. My friends reported that they saw them mating in the area between the two retention ponds on Morgan Drive. On 30 April at dusk I decided to visit the area at dusk. For the first time, I saw the male plucking feathers off prey on the Plucking Post. Note the bulging stomach (crop) that shows on the hawk.
On 1 May at dusk the male returned.
On 2 May, at dusk, he returned again. This time with a young rabbit.
And again on 3 May, at dusk he returned with another bird.
I saw the female (Mom) come by to pick up the food. Notice that her eye is more orange than the male’s who has a red eye. Also her black cap is not as vivid as the male’s. But she is considerably larger as will be shown in future photographs and videos.
On 15 May we saw the male at the plucking post during the day.
And on 17 May we saw him plucking.
On 12 June we saw a transfer on the plucking post between the male and female.
On 25 June we saw another transfer between the male and the female. Here are two videos: the first one is at normal time. The second is slow motion about 1/2 the original frames per second. Note how the male keeps his eye on the female so that he can get out of the way in time. Note also how the female is much larger than the male.
Here is the Plucking Post viewing from the west on Collin Creek.
And here it is viewing from the east on Collin Creek. The post, in this case a snag, was about 9 feet from the ground and about 7 to 8 inches in diameter, all ideal for a plucking post.
After the siblings had all fledged, we noticed that the nest seemed to disassemble. After a few days we could no longer find any evidence of the nest. Our expert, Ed told us that it was unusual, but that it did happen. We do not know why it happened. Up to this point, the parents would use the nest as a food drop off point. But after the nest disappeared, the dad began using the Plucking Post as the drop off point. This made it very easy for us to observe and photograph the hawk family. They were not bothered by our presence on the trail; however, the dad was bothered by horses.