It’s been over two weeks since our last update to a previous post about a family of red tail hawks and the care and feeding of two fluffy white chicks in the nest. Well, in that short time period, those chicks have been growing, and today they appear nearing that time when they are fully fledged and ready to leave the nest. We observed them both testing their flight feathers and strengthening those wings for a day in the not too distant future when the parents’ job will be complete.
texasflashdude 
I was wondering about them yesterday, and now I know. What fabulous photos! I was laughing at the next-to-last “are you done?” photo before I even read your text. The clarity’s astounding; it’s wonderful to be able to see the complex patterns on the birds’ legs and underwings. I was lucky enough to see an osprey leave the nest once; it took quite a lot of standing around and flapping before it finally took off. Even then, I wasn’t sure it really meant to, or whether it might have over-balanced, and the leave-taking just happened.
It was fairly windy yesterday, and as we watched the sibling farthest from the pole flapping and jumping, I was expecting him to be carried off the nest prematurely. The relationship between siblings in nature seems universal, whether it’s human teenagers or birds in a nest, or prairie dog pups…all the same.
I’m a big fan of Ron Magill, a photographer and curator at the Miami Zoo. He has done some wonderful talks on family relationships in wildlife. Plus he’s just plain fun to listen to giving a talk. If you don’t know who he is, here’s a link to a lengthy but wonderful presentation on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97rBy4oO9CY&list=WL&index=17&t=0s
Have a great day.