Sharpie Nests

By Tony Englert

On Saturday June 9th my son and I went with 2 other local falconers and 2 out of state falconers to help the out of state guys fill their permits for Sharp Shinned hawks. We all got an early start as the weather was going to be hot by afternoon. We drove about 45 miles to an area rich with pines mixed in with hardwoods. There are 2 types of pines in this area; yellow pines and white pines. I do not know the formal names for these types of pines but they are definitely different in structure.

The yellow pines are usually mixed with the hardwoods and have lots of undercover. It is difficult to walk these woods and try to look up to the tops for possible nests. We have not had much success finding birds in these type of situations. The white pines seem to be preferred by both of the smaller accipiters in this region. These trees are very close together and have almost no ground cover below their canopies. They are very pretty woods, with large stands of pines and a nice carpet of pine needles to walk on. A person can easily see to the tops of these trees where the little hawks nest.

We first went to a new spot that I had found but had not had the opportunity to check. Driving along the road you could easily see good stands of white pines with no ground cover underneath. We followed a power line into the field and entered the edge of the woods. We heard some crows calling which sometimes is helpful for locating hawks. We found nest after nest but nothing that made us believe that any were active. Finally one of the local falconers said that he has an active nest in sight through his binoculars. When asked how he knew it was active, he said "Because I can see the young birds standing on the nest". Sure enough, he had found a Cooper's hawk nest with several birds in plain sight. We looked around some more and then decided to move on. Nobody in our party was interested in taking a Cooper's, but it is always helpful to find new nests for future reference.

A 3 week old sharpie just taken

Next we drove to a spot where we had found birds last year, but had not yet located the nest this year. I had been to this area 3 times previously in the last month and all signs made me believe that there was a Sharpie nesting here. On the last outing my 10 year old son Warren had picked up 9 molted Sharpie feathers. I had a nest in mind that looked good but had not seen or heard the bird. We entered the woods and walked to the area where my son had found the feathers. The ground was covered with mutes and songbird feathers. Again we found a molted feather. There were about 4 nests in the vicinity that looked good. We decided to climb the closest one to the hawk mutes. This nest was empty. We spent the next 2-1/2 hours circling the area, inspecting nests and banging on the trees to try to spook the female off of any possible nest. Nothing indicated that she was on any particular nest and we were getting real frustrated. I walked over to the nest that I had picked 10 days earlier and stared at it for awhile. I explained to all that this was the best looking nest as far as I could tell. It reminded me of an open hand turned with fingers pointing towards the sky. The nest was situated right in the middle. We beat on the tree and tried to shake it with no results. As a last resort I started strapping on the climbing equipment. Someone asked if I was going to climb all the way up without seeing a bird. I said no, that I was just planning on climbing a short distance to give the tree a better shake. My friend Paul told me I was wasting my time. I didn't care though, I had to find out if my hunch was right. Up the tree I went. At 15 feet up I gave the tree a good shake and everybody simultaneously said they saw her move. I was right, she had been there the whole time and had not moved. I came down the tree and put the rest of the climbing equipment on. This time I went up to the top. About 3 feet from the nest the female flew off screaming. I quickly got up the nest and peeked over the edge. Eggs! Five little white and tawny speckled eggs. I quickly made my way to the ground. We put moth balls around the tree and let her back on her nest. I told the out of state guys not to worry because we had another nest where the bird was sitting eggs 3 weeks ago.

John descending the eyrie

The other nest was only about 2 miles from this last nest. We got back in the car and quickly drove to our parking spot. I assured the guys that we would be able to take birds here. After the short trip through the woods we came to the nest. If we had not flushed her off 3 weeks ago, I would not have believed that this nest was active. Someone in the group questioned whether this was the actual nest since there were no revealing signs. I assured them that this was it and that droppings from little Sharpies rarely make it all the way to the ground. One of the other falconers climbed this tree. As he got near the top he stated that he was seeing mutes. This nest was not too high compared to the last one. As he looked into the nest he said that there were 3 birds and 2 unhatched eggs. The birds were fairly young and would be perfect for imprinting according to "the recipe". It would have been better if all 5 eggs had hatched, knowing that we were only leaving one chick with the 2 remaining eggs. Since the birds were young, we all felt that there was some chance that the remaining eggs could hatch. We spread more moth balls around the nest and left the woods. The 2 guys getting birds had a good drive ahead of them and were anxious to get on the road. We all shook hands and went our separate ways. Two other falconers were coming next weekend to get birds, so hopefully the nest with 5 eggs will have 5 young birds. This female last year had produced 5 young and had a sixth egg in the nest, so we felt confident that they will all most likely be hatched. The plan is to return the following Saturday and see if they have hatched.

The payoff, two 3 day old sharpies

On Saturday June 16th, we got up and went down to the nest area very early. We were to meet several people at the nest with eggs at about 9:00 A.M. My friend John and I decided to first go to an area where we had seen a sharpie fly out of a stand of pines that contained a nest. I had been back to the pines 3 different times and had seen nothing. After thinking about the sharpie at last week's nest and how tight she sat, I wondered if the same could be true at this nest. We entered the woods and went straight to the nest. There were still no signs around the nest. John walked away from me for just a moment. As I looked around, I saw the sharpie fly in and circle around. I called John back over. I was now sure that there was a nest here somewhere. We sat and watched and soon the tiercel flew up carrying food. This really got us excited, because we knew there was a nest here, and most likely there were young in the nest. I decided to climb the tree we had found a nest in. As I climbed both birds put on beautiful aerial displays. I soon discovered that in my excitement, I had hastily climbed the wrong tree. John chuckled as he watched the tiercel fly to another nearby tree. John walked over and told me that the active nest was about 20 feet from the tree I had climbed, and that he could see mutes below this nest. Down the tree I came and up the next one I went. At 45 years old I can still climb fairly quickly. These trees are nothing compared to climbing to a nest protected by an angry goshawk. Up at the nest I found 2 fairly old birds (14-18 days old) and 3 unhatched eggs. We decided to take one bird for a friend that was meeting us at the next nest. He was in the process of building a house, and the slightly older than desired bird would not bother him compared to the hardiness of the bird. This bird could be carried around without too much worrying. Down the tree I came and off to the next nest we went to meet the other falconers.

When we arrived at the other nest area, our companions we were meeting were parked and waiting. This was the nest we had been fooled on last week, but now know the exact location. We entered the woods and went down the hill directly to the nest. The moth balls could be seen around the tree. The smell was only slight due to the rains from the day before. John put on the climbing equipment and started up the tree. At first we saw no signs of the female, but once John reached the 2/3 height in the tree, she jumped up off the nest and started flying around. As he climbed within 3 feet of the nest, she flew by several times as if she was going to strike. In reality, I think she was just trying to get back on the nest. When John reached the nest he yelled that the eggs had hatched and that the birds were fairly young. The 1 out of state falconer said that she would have no problem keeping a young bird warm and that feeding multiple times during the day was not a problem. the resident falconer agreed that he too could raise the bird. After closer inspection John shouted that 4 eggs had hatched and that the fifth egg was pipping and that he could see the tiny beak trying to make the opening larger. He quickly put what he believed to be 1 male and 1 female in the creel basket on his waist and started his dissent. We were leaving 3 birds for this hen to raise. As soon as John was 10 feet below the nest, the female returned and immediately took her place on top of the young birds. John reached the ground where all made a big fuss over such cute little birds. In retrospect we all decided that in the future when we find eggs, we will wait 2 weeks before returning to the nest. These birds will really be imprinted due to the young age. We quickly left the woods and headed back towards home.

In all it was a very successful year finding birds. We had found 3 sharpie nests and 1 Cooper's nest up here in the north central part of Kentucky. Some other falconers in the western part of the state had called and reported that they had found 3 sharpie nests and 3 Cooper's nests. These birds are all over the state. We find Cooper's hawks in the city, but usually we do not bother these nests. On the way home from work last night I saw a male Cooper's carrying food to a woods next to a hospital. I am sure there is a nest there, however this area is a park and would not be suitable for taking birds. If I get a chance over the next 2 weeks I will walk in the park just to identify the nest location.

Attached to this story I have added a link to my account on Photopoint. If you click this link you will be taken to many nice pictures downloaded from my video camera. It is worth visiting just to see the cute little sharpies. Also loaded there are pictures of the woods so you can see what habitat we find birds in. I hope you all have enjoyed this story.