National Wildlife law experts needed-Red Tail Hawks

I live near a green belt where a family of red tail hawks have been coming back to nest for years. The city is doing one of its " beautification" things and i'm afraid that they may be planning to cut the group of trees down where the hawks nest. A few weeks ago I saw some city trucks and a bunch of guys walking around near the group of trees, some are dead but not all of them. I called the Parks dept and got transferred from one person to another and then was told that someone would call me back. It's been a week and i called back today only to have the same thing happen. I decided that I am just going to go down there and demand answers but I need to know if there are any laws protecting these birds in my state (Texas). I have to leave in 30 minutes so any info would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.tx.audubon.org/ Try contacting them.

i'll let you know how my visit goes today.

right one.

Federal law protects their habitat from being tampered with. You are right on! Call the audobon society!

It's illeagle. <---Okay, bad pun, that.

about your laws but you could roust up the neighborhood, inform them that there might be a problem. Put up a sign by the trees? I would make a stink about it.

If Texas is anything like Kansas, and I am guessing it is not since you actually have green belts, then there is nothing more important that putting down that concrete. Most of the areas around where I live adore the concrete. No real maintenence and who needs all those trees and flowers anyway? If you really want them you fill your area with concrete planters and plant flowers that you never water after they are planted.

I have to admit it is changing slowly but in the past beautification was simply applying Round-Up and pouring concrete.

Get the neighborhood involved.

was recently halted when it was discovered that a pair of Red-Tails were nesting 300 feet up in the building. The local TV had nice reports on it. Maybe you could get your TV station to do the same. It would put the developers on the spot to respect the birds.

But you never know. I'd walk down and innocently tell the site manager for the crew there is a hawk's nest in the trees and they should make sure it's not protected before felling the trees.

That way they can't claim ignorance if it is protected.

the only birds you can kill are House Sparrows (actually an introduced Weaver Finch), Pigeons (Rock Doves), European Starlings and Pheasants. Red Tail Hawks are a common native bird and they may be able to remove the trees after nesting season.:shrug: If the dead trees aren't a danger they really should leave them, one of the biggest problems birds face is a lack of nesting places because people insist on cutting down dead trees.

I didn't think it was -- which does, as you say, mean you can remove trees after the nesting season, but doesn't necessarily mean you can shoot it. This would vary by locality of course.

Hawks are beautiful birds and I'd hope a city crew would try to help maintain a nesting site if at all possible.

they have special legal status. I remember hearing that somewhere, so it would be best to verify. :shrug:

I don't think you can mess with their nesting sites, period.

But you can take down a tree with a nest after the nesting season is over because they are not endangered.

that you've taken pictures and videos of everything over the years, even if you haven't. Let them know tactfully that if anything happens to the hawks or the trees they nest in that you'll become their worst nightmare. If they think someone has documentation of the hawks and their nesting grounds (in pictures), they'll think twice about ever cutting them down for fear the pictures or videos could end up in the hands of a TV magazine show! Yeah, it's kind of like blackmail but hey, ya gotta do what you gotta do.

If you keep getting the run-around from the city, call your local wildlife rescue center AND the local media. Between the two, they'll know how to get somebody's attention to halt the cutdown or at least relocate the hawks.

I lucked out and the lady at the information desk at City hall is a bird lover. She was very concerned and made a call to double check the that the birds/nest are protected. She was able to confirm that fact and then proceeded to call the Engineering Dept. to find out if that was indeed their project and not Water Utilities. She spoke to the city engineering supervisor who told her that he was pretty sure that Animal Services had been out there and that there was to be a temporary fence put up around the group of trees protecting them. She mentioned to him several times what a HUGE problem it would be if the birds were disturbed. He also gave her the number for the actual project manager which she gave to me. He had already left for the day so I called him a few minutes ago. He assured me that they were not to go within 150 feet of the tree and that he had been watching the family for weeks and said that the babies should be leaving soon. I asked him what the plan was after that reminding him that there would still be a nest that they would come back to next year. He also assured me that they had no plans to work anywhere near the group of trees in the future. YAY for the Hawk family :)