The hawkcam was taken down on Monday 11-June-2012. For a summary of the events captured by the 2012 hawkcam (including videos), please see our article: "Empty Nest Syndrome" Strikes Hawk Cam.

Update: April 4, 2014

There have been some scattered sightings of a Red-tailed hawk family near the AO&SS and Geology buildings and it looks like they added some material to a nest, but they are not nesting there yet. We will keep monitoring the situation and if any thing changes we will update this page.

Notes from last year (2013)

We're keeping an eye out for our red-tailed friends, but we have not spotted the hawks since late February, when they were seen visiting last year's nest and adding sticks to it. Several significant snow falls kept the old nest full of snow for much of March.

Given their month-long absence, each passing day makes it less likely that they will return this year. We talked to John Blakeman who is a red tailed hawk expert consulting with the New York Times and Cornell, among others.

Last year, there were three eggs in the nest on March 26, so we were curious whether the snow-covered nest last month meant we had "missed the window" for the hawks to return and nest.

Mr. Blakeman told us that while nesting times can vary from year-to-year by as much as a month, "If there is no activity or visits to the nest by the birds by mid-April, chances for re-use will be quite low."

"Red-tails are noted for abandoning recently used, otherwise fine nest sites, and putting up a new nest sometimes but a 100 meters away," he wrote. "Usually, new nests are somewhere within a quarter mile or so of the previous nest. The reasons and motivations for these new nests in new, nearby locations are a mystery."

We will continue to watch and hope for the hawks' return, and if they do come back, we will put the 'HawkCam' camera out again. If we don't see them in the next week or so, however, it is unlikely they will nest on Weeks Hall again this year.