Baby Red Tailed Hawk Raised by Bald Eagles: The Story of Tuffy...

[@dd776]

Thank you for documenting this. Your valuable time, photography skills combined with the storytelling are much appreciated!

[@lynetteupchurch4382]

Keep these stories coming Doug! Riveting. You kept me enthralled.

[@N_v_G]

Thanks for the story, Doug. Rest In Peace Tuffy, you were a tough one.

[@srittz5981]

Rest in peace beautiful and brave Tuffy. You will be remembered for your bravery and beauty. You were so cute. Now you are with the angels -flying high, eating yummy foods, and drinking water.

[@doggonedean5314]

Thanks so much for making this video. It was a fascinating sage as it unfolded on the Facebook birding group page. I had previously seen similar occurrences documented in Britch Columbia, but it happening so close to home; WOW. It's nice to see the saga in its' entirety, separated from the emotions surrounding the live event.💖

[@featherbirdlady]

Tuffy2 gave it her best shot. She was so tenacious. It's sad she's gone.

[@KimAtkins60]

Thank you for your dedication and passion for providing these images! What a story...

[@pmarcum7146]

I very much appreciated your documentary, which skillfully conveys a tremendous amount of informative while also remaining respectful of a difficult situation. I live in a town just a bit north of Gilroy and followed the Tuffy story as it was unfolding on facebook, and was so annoyed at the folks who always seemed to come up with a 'benign' explanation for the vicious behaviors that we could all see for ourselves that was happening between the eagles and hawklet. I felt gaslit, because I could see with my own eyes what was going on. I imagine you felt 1000x more of that exasperation. In any case, thank you for providing a detailed account of little Tuffy's life and for sharing so much of your expertise. You have a great talent for not only narrating a story in a captivating way, but also for designing a visually stunning presentation. Thank you!

[@lets_go_birding9096]

I'm really glad you enjoyed the video. I made a lot of people angry for telling the true, unbias story of what happened and still get hate-mail to this day over the story. This red-tailed hawklet abduction by eagles happened again this season (down by San Luis Obispo) and would have ended the same. Luckily, the hawklet (named Chance) fell/was knocked out of the nest and rescued. Looks like he'll recover from his eagle-induced injuries! I really appreciate your comments:-)

[@lynetteupchurch4382]

Breaks my heart, the story that started so well has a tragic ending. Rest In Prace Tuffy. You were a beauty.

[@earthangel8875]

I never knew eagles stole other birds' babies. What a sad story. You captured so many beautiful photos and videos of the life of the abducted hawklet. You are a great photographer. MountainAngel new subber

[@lets_go_birding9096]

Thank you. That was a tough eagle season for sure. The mom and dad eagles involved in the Tuffy story have split up (we think the dad passed on) and there were no eaglets last season and things are not looking good for this year either.

[@goodfox9250]

There was one hawk raised by eagles in Canada. The young hawk had other eaglets. They said the hawk would have been a meal for the eaglets but they were all well fed. The hawk has not seen after fully fledging from the nest.

[@lets_go_birding9096]

Yes, I heard about that. This last eagle season, it happened again in San Luis Batista, California. This time, the tiny red-tailed hawk got beat up and knocked out of the nest. Luckily, photographers were there to rescue it and it was successfully rehabbed and released into the wild.

[@michaelcorcoran8768]

My Lord, what a wild and sad story. It's crazy that the talon could penetrate the skull. A rescue probably wouldn't have even helped by that point. Assuming the brain drama took place before it was perched up in imobile. It's a shame that even if we can never document behavior like this again, we'll be looking at such a small sample size that it's hard to deduce much. This might happen three or four times in a lifetime in a way that can be monitored. Maybe never again. And at that point, it's hard to draw any reasonable inferences or conclusions about why this happens. What triggered the hesitance to eat the hawk immediately.

[@lets_go_birding9096]

As you probably know, it did just happen again down in San Luis Obispo County. This time, the little red-tailed hawk, after being raised for a couple weeks successfully, was getting severely bullied by her siblings and ultimately knocked out of the nest with injuries. Luckily, she was rescued and successfully released into the wild last week! I would guess this happens a lot more than we realize, but because of the increasing popularity of bird photography, I bet we are going to see more of it, than we use to.

[@michaelcorcoran8768]

Yeah one thing that I have definitely observed since I've started following nests is that people get caught up in it and get very mad at who's ever taking the photos for not intervening. Even when it's not practical or legal or necessarily even beneficial for the species. Become sort of like a reality television show instead of nature. And I can understand it. Even just getting this short video I was falling in love with tuffy. But I have to remember that there's really no reason to judge the eagles. They're behaving on instinct and we're presumably confused themselves. But boy you really wish you could put your mind temporarily inside the minds of the mother when she was abducting the thing and then chose not to kill it. Did they think it was an eagle?? Why feed it 16 times and then change your mind. I doubt the eagles even really know themselves why. But it is incredibly bizarre behavior. Infinite variables at play. Hopefully now that this is sort of a famous story that people will spot a successful version of a bald eagle raising a hawk.

[@lets_go_birding9096]

Well said:-)

[@michaelcorcoran8768]

”eagle experts assurred Us this wouldn't happen." I'm not an expert but how could anyone make that assurance? These things are incredibly hard to predict, even if the proper eglets from the proper parents. Even then, occasionally they're sibling aside or infanticide or one won't get fed or whatever.... So I don't know how they could confidently assert that the Hawks wouldn't be killed. But like I said, I'm not an expert. But I would have assumed that was a threat at any point.

[@lets_go_birding9096]

We learned very fast not to trust this group. This abduction story happened again this season in San Luis Obispo, only this time the hawklet was with two eaglets--all about the same age. The hawklet was almost killed / starved after a few weeks and luckily fell/ was knocked out of the nest and rescued. The hawklet, last I heard, was going to make it.