Franklin's hawks: An egg

Spring is, by far, my favorite season of the year, so fecund and full of possibility. My goal this year is to attract a pair of bluebirds my husband saw recently near the apple tree. We had a pair nesting for a few years, but the last two years they haven't graced us with their presence. So I'm going to reposition the nextbox and put out mealworms.

Meanwhile, things are certainly cranking along out there in the rest of birdland. The two red-tailed hawks that nested last year at the Franklin Institute are back on the nest again, and Saturday the female laid the first egg. You can watch on the institute's cam.  The pair handily nested on a window ledge, and the camer is just inside, a few mere feet away. I was just online, and the site has 367 viewers! Watching a female sit on an egg! Last year, the pair hatched three eggs, and the hits to the site went through the roof.

To keep up with the latest details, check out the blog written by local "hawkaholic" Della Micah. You can also join the group's facebook page.

Wildlife cams are hugely popular. I won't spoil your fun in discovering them -- just google cam and bird, for instance, or nest cam. But one definitely worth checking out is Pennsylvania's falcon cam, which keeps an eye on two peregrines nesting on the Rachel Carson building in Harrisburg, which also houses Department of Envrionmental Protection offices.  Last year, the first egg arrived on March 21.

A lot of eagle cams exist -- amazing, considering how the birds often select remote locations. So getting a cam installed before the eagles get there often requires a bit of ingenuity, not to mention tree-climbing. The nests are getting busy these days, with the young just hatching in many locales.

Happy bird-snooping!