Written by Rick Vetter/Photo by Rick Vetter
The iconic ferruginous hawk nest south of Burns on Hwy 205 a few miles north of the Narrows has a new nesting platform.
The original nest was in a lone juniper tree, but the weight of the nest crushed the center of the tree and it fell to the ground in 2022. We modified the center of the tree with strategic bracing of additional branches and a simple platform before the nesting season in 2023. The hawks started adding sticks within a week, built a 1 foot high nest in 10 days and successfully nested that year and in 2024.
The tree appeared to fall over in the summer of 2024 and the hawks nested on the back side of the fallen tree a few feet off the ground in 2025 with limited success.
With permission from the land owner, Howard Richburg, his son Alex and I erected a new nesting platform on a steel pipe on October 12, 2025 before winter weather prevented favorable working conditions.
While working on the project, we noticed that the juniper tree did not fall over on its own. Unfortunately, it was deliberately cut 80 percent through the trunk to fall over in the next high wind which it did. Not sure why anyone would do that but let’s hope the hawks accept the new platform and it is not vandalized again. The land owner also said I can put up no trespassing signs.
The new nest has low and high side perches and was made out of an old bed frame obtained at the local recycling center. Howard welded it into a square shape with cross supports that sits on old oil well pipes that I had in the boneyard. We chose steel for less maintenance and since we now know the tree was cut, this may last longer.
It was a bit challenging to set the pipe in a deep hole and especially to walk the new 80 pound platform up ladders and lift it high enough to slip the smaller upper pipe attached to the platform into the lower support pipe. I just had total knee replacement on Sept 17th, but careful, slow work and pain management drugs allowed a well-planned project to be completed without injury to the new knee that is still under going physical therapy. (Well, maybe a one-week setback.)
As we worked on the new nest, one of the ferruginous hawks flew over and watched us for a few minutes. They have not been seen on the new platform yet but nesting starts in mid February. Let’s hope they accept the invitation to nest above the coyotes this year.
I encourage everyone to a take a moment and stop to look at the nest and conduct a 3-minute eBird report to document nesting or lack of. Remember to pull off the road as much as possible, with emergency flashers on. Maybe a hotspot can be created there to accommodate the reports for easy data review.
Over the past 20 years, this nest site has been used by a great horned owl, a Canada goose and maybe a red-tailed hawk. When the nest was large, western kingbirds also nested in the nest.
