More Hawks at Harvard

Remember when we posted pictures of a hawk spotted in Kirkland courtyard? Well, we just discovered a blog—compiled by Holly Hutchison, the administrator for the Folklore and Mythology department—that has everything you ever wanted to know about hawks at Harvard.

Hutchison had never been a “serious” bird-watcher until she saw a crowd observing a red-tailed hawk near Lamont Library in mid-June of 2009 that piqued her curiosity. Since that day, she has been observing hawks at Harvard, photographing and shooting videos of them, and mapping their location all over the Yard and beyond.

The blog, called “Hawks at Harvard,” is a map of Hutchison’s developing interests. She began the project interested in red-tailed hawks’ birdsongs, reading books and online articles to learn more. These materials were “really helpful in giving me some pointers on a few more things to be looking for, and explaining some of what I was seeing/hearing,” she wrote in her blog.

Hutchison focused on the sounds that birds like hawks and robins emit (“kreeeeeet-kreet-kreet” versus "chip-chip"), which help her locate the hawks. However, her main project has been to follow two red-tailed hawks and their parents on First Church, Memorial Church, and Memorial Hall, writing and taking pictures of the creatures as they feed, preen, and fly. “I’m coming to realize that we’ve had red-tailed hawks living at Harvard for years now. I think they live on the north edge of the Yard, whereas my office is on the southern edge. But sometimes they do fly down to where we can see them,” Hutchison wrote.

Even though red-tailed hawks are common to North America, Hutchison’s pursuit of the birds has been challenging, due to lighting conditions and the hawks’ own behavior. In one of her earlier posts, she noted, “As they grow, the juvenile red-tails become more elusive.” Another difficulty for Hutchison has been the mockingbirds, who imitate hawk sounds, and the surrounding traffic, which obscures the hawks’ screams. Hutchison has also written that watching hawks can be time-consuming: one hawk she observed stayed perched on First Church’s weather vane for forty minutes.

Hutchison could not be reached for comment, but you can check out her blog here.

Photo courtesy of Doviende - CC BY 2.0.