Screen capture courtesy of the Marietta College hawk cam A mother bird gets her nest ready Wednesday afternoon for her eggs. The family of hawks can be watched over live stream on YouTube.

Bird watchers can once again enjoy peeking into the lives of a family of hawks through Marietta College’s hawk cam.

This family of red-shouldered hawks have made their nest high in a tree on Putnam Street since 2018. This is the second year for the hawk cam, which is live streamed on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BK86npNsqNY. On Wednesday afternoon, the hawk cam showed a calm and brooding mother bird incubating her eggs. Off and on during the day, the father bird visited the nest.

Tom Perry, vice president for communication and brand management at Marietta College, said right now, they are averaging 66 people a day on the hawk cam.

“We expect that to grow now that the hawk is spending more time in the nest,” he explained.

He added that people recommended they have a hawk cam as the nest has been there for years.

“We didn’t have the capability at the time (for the hawk cam),” he said. “Last year, we put the camera up when the babies were already hatched. It was April or May before we got a camera up last year.”

Perry said local residents have shown the nest attention over the years.

“There was a general interest in the community and a general interest on campus,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of comments from local teachers that they shared it with their kids. It’s Mother Nature at work, seeing their natural habitat and what (the hawk) does.”

He added the camera is far enough away from the nest that the birds don’t know it’s there. The camera was put up late last year, so the eggs had already hatched. This year, an outdoor camera was put in place that will be in the tree year-round.

“This time, we’ll keep it up when the chicks are capable of flying away,” Perry explained. “We can turn it back on in January to see if they come back.”

Ryan Donnelly, Ohio Department of Natural Resources wildlife specialist for Washington County, said the brooding period for the bird, which is when they incubate the eggs, usually peaks in April, May and June. He said it was a possibility that the mother bird laid her eggs early because of the milder winter.

“It depends on their source of food and how healthy the birds are to incubate the eggs,” Donnelly said.

The incubation period is 33 days on average and the hawk usually has three or four eggs.

“She’ll sit on the eggs for 33 days and it will be 40 to 45 days after hatching until fledging,” he added.

The bird will typically lose one or two out of that hatch. Donnelly said that’s pretty common, which is why they have three or four eggs so one or two will survive.

Michele Newbanks can be reached at mnewbanks@mariettatimes.com.

Red-Shouldered Hawk characteristics:

• Dark wings and rusty shoulder.

• Tail and feathers are banded black and white.

• Eats small mammals, reptiles, amphibians and small birds.

• Preferred habitat is deciduous woodlands and swamps.

Source: Ohio Department of Natural Resources.