Expected behavior

On the way to see the hawks. Checking for jewelweed. Pretty soon the hummers will be at their nectar.
White breasted hawk sitting in usual tree. All reports that bird seems healthy.

Off in dense tree, buff breasted hawk has a pigeon.

The docile sitter........

The grasping eater....

All of a sudden "whitey" flew straight into dense tree and sat observing dinner.

Watch and wait. Sibling knew who was in the background.

Whitey starts voicing an opinion.

Now buff hawk is manteling, protecting this meal. Sibling has moved right to his side.

Over the seasons I've posted scenes of two young hawks facing off over food, food fights, talon to talon, vicious looking. It's too bad that this confrontation took place in the dense branches.

What happened was a swirl of feathers, heart-stopping, because there was no way to tell who was tumbling, wings askew. Very worrisome. But in the end, "Buffy" lost the meal and was on the lower branch.....

while "Whitey" had the pigeon meal.

And most important nobody was hurt in the face-off tumble, which looked much worse than it was.

The buff- breasted kid spent some time on the lower branch looking well satisfied. Note the crop. This hawk has had a good meal.

The white-breasted kid resembles his father, Pale Male, and the buff -breasted hawk has the mother's coloration. I really don't like to name young hawks.

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