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July 16:
We have just returned from a delightful vacation in the cool of Colorado Springs and a wonderful time with friends. I can't say we were happy to leave the cool of the Rocky Mountains, only to return to Dallas, where a 12-day stretch of 100+ temperatures was just beginning.
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Although there have been no young Cooper's hawks to watch this year, the usual wildlife has returned to Valley Ranch. A Mississippi kite returned to his perch atop one of our cypress trees in late June. Occasionally we would see a second kite flying, but did not see them in the tree together.
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In late June, we found a nest of green herons in the same tree where they nested last year. Before we left for our Colorado vacation, the three young herons were hopping about in the tree.
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When we returned, they had fledged, and were flying about all over the canal. I captured two of them in this photo, just after the third one heard someone walking along the canal and flew.
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July 22:
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It is time for fledgling Cooper's hawks to be on the wing and crying their little begging calls to their parents. I listen for them and hear only cicadas. I walk over to the nest where Screamer fledged three young ones last year, but all is quiet; she did not use that nest this year, although it is still in the tree.
On a Sunday, as we left the house, I heard it... the very faint, distant call of a young Cooper's hawk. I looked up, and there, soaring high in the sky, was the hawk. He is not one of ours, and he will not come to our cypress trees, but he is a promise. Cooper's hawks continue to populate Valley Ranch, and we will watch for them to return next year.
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Continue to Epilogue: More About Rufous
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