Not only is Downtown Raleigh a great place for families to live, it’s also a great place for red-tailed hawks to make their home.  We learned about these feathered neighbors at the Downtown Lunch Break Hawk Walk sponsored by the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.

There’s a pair of hawks nesting near the steeple of the First Baptist Church on Salisbury Street, directly across from the Capitol.  According to a bird expert from the museum, these hawks nested in the same spot in 2011 and raised twice the usual number of young.  While the number of hatchlings in the nest this year is yet to be determined, the pair have adapted well to urban living and raised four in 2011.  The food is plentiful and there’s no real competition for it.  The grounds of the Capitol grounds seem to be a squirrel haven, plus the red-tail hawks also like to feed on pigeons, starlings, and rats.

So bring your binoculars and to get a good look at this particular pair of hawks and their nest.  (And they’re not the only ones living in downtown.) Join in on one of the museum’s hawk walks this spring.

And definitely check out the amazing Raleigh Raptors Blog for updates, pictures, and information at http://opienc.wordpress.com/

I’m really hoping these hawks make a big dent in the squirrel population in Downtown Raleigh, thereby protecting my tomato crop from those crafty little pests.

That’s Life in Raleigh.

Our N.C. State basketball team has made it into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament.  It’s been a while since we’ve been here, and we’re very excited to be back.  So excited that it seemed appropriate to  dress Sir Walter Raleigh up in a Wolfpack jersey.

That’s Life in Raleigh….a/k/a Wolfpack Country.

Aahh…..this is how we like it.  Yesterday evening we enjoyed a beautiful snowfall.  But now, the very next morning, the streets are just damp and there are only traces of white on surfaces and dotting the grass.  Even better, our only snowfall this winter started falling on the eve of President’s Day, lessening the distress about the morning commute and the anxious speculation about whether schools would be open or closed.

Yeah, yeah, go ahead and laugh that there’s a long list of schools and businesses  that are starting on a two-hour delay though there’s hardly a flake in sight.  Our workweek is forecast to end with three seventy-degree days.  It seems like we really have the best of both worlds this week:  The beauty of snow and the glory of open windows and a fresh breeze.

That’s Life in Raleigh.

It’s hard to believe that yesterday was Groundhog Day 2012.  Sir Walter Wally, Raleigh’s groundhog, predicted six more weeks of winter for us.  Really, Wally? Here in Raleigh in the winter of 2011-2012, I don’t think we’ve had six weeks of winter-like weather yet. Our snow total for the entire season sits at 0.0 inches, the thermometer hit 70 more than once in the last week, my heating bill actually makes me smile, and it’s starting to look like spring everywhere.  Daffodils and forsythia are in full bloom, trees are budding and flowering, the air is sweetly fragrant, some insects are back, and so are the birds.  There was even a flock of robins checking out my garden today.  On the down side, my yard is starting to look like I need to pull out the mower already.  Nah, it’d be a shame to mow down those  buttercups that are out there.

I’ll gladly take six more weeks of this kind of winter.

That’s Life in Raleigh.

Everywhere I go…