The young hawk raised by eagles in Sidney has left the nest, but the town still wants to celebrate the intriguing natural event.
Sidney Mayor Steve Price has proclaimed Sunday as Bald Eagle-Hawklet Day to recognize the unlikely Roberts Bay family.
“There have been people coming in from all over the world,” Price said Thursday. “I think it’s actually increased tourism in Sidney in hotels and restaurants.”
The red-tailed hawk and its three eagle foster siblings were last spotted on July 28. The young birds had already started leaving the nest, so bird-watchers hope they have all made the transition to independence.
Two hawklets and the noticeably larger eagles — three eaglets and two adults — garnered celebrity after they were spotted in May in a long-established eagle nest. One of the hawks disappeared and is presumed to have died or been killed by the larger eagles.
How the hawks wound up in a nest of eagles has been a mystery that captured the imagination. Some believe the hawk chicks were taken as prey. Taken alive to the nest, they started to beg and the eagle parents responded to the stimulus. Others believe a passing female hawk simply laid her eggs in the eagle nest, where they were incubated and hatched.
Another question was whether the hawk chick would know how to survive as a hawk. Eagles live largely on fish and carrion. Red-tailed hawks take small mammals, birds and reptiles as prey.
But Terry Venables, a keen nature photographer who has taken many shots of the blended bird family, said he heard one report of the hawk chasing a grey squirrel last week.
Venables said he was told the young hawk didn’t catch the squirrel. But it’s good reason to hope the bird is learning hawk-hunting techniques and stands a good shot at survival.
• A block party is being held 1-4 p.m. Sunday on Summerset Place to celebrate the unusual hawk-eagle family.
