My name is Wes Deyton and I recently graduated from Western
Carolina University with a Bachelors Degree in Communications and Broadcasting.
I live in Fuquay Varina North Carolina, which is
near Raleigh. I enjoy taking pictures
and making videos of wildlife as well as scenic nature.
Anyways, let's all give Mr. Deyton a warm welcome! I hope you enjoy these pictures and the video, all of which were taken by Mr. Deyton, as much as I did!
The Red Shouldered Hawk is a medium sized hawk, it primarily
lives in woodland areas and it can be found all over the eastern woodlands as
well as California and Northern Mexico. These birds generally live in woodland
and swamp areas and build their
nests high up in trees, close to sources of water such as lakes, streams and
swamps. The nesting period of these
birds is about 45-60 days.
The female hawk spends most of her time getting food to bring back to the nest for her young. The diet of these birds consist mostly of small mammals, reptiles (including snakes), and
amphibians. There is no sharing in a hawks
nest when it comes to food: when the mother brings food to the nest, the chicks have to fight for food.
Sometimes, the female hawk will feed the smaller hawk to make sure it gets enough nourishment to grow and develop
healthily.
Hawks get bored in the nest
and dream about life on the outside. They dream about flying high like their
parents. This is very evident by seeing them jump back and forth and flap their
wings in the nest before they are fully developed to fly. The young hawks
climb from branch to branch to develop their balance and then fly short distances until they build up their confidence to fly away
from the nest.
The hawk is at the top of the food chain and strikes fear in
smaller birds when they are around.
Aren't those pictures brilliant! Thank you very much Mr. Deyton for sharing these pictures and the video with us, we hope to hear more from you again in the future! Thanks again! -Zack Neher
