A mother hawk must be among the most attentive parents in nature. She sat on the babies to keep them warm and shielded them with her wings to keep them cool. She alone fed the babies, maintained the nest, glared at intruders, and watched anything that moved.

When the adult wasn't tending her nestlings, she generally sat on the edge of the nest and surveyed her surroundings. Her senses were acute; although my vantage point was about 75 meters away, a metal on metal "clink" would usually provoke "the eyeball".

The hawk's perimeter was also wide. Once during my early observations, she left the nest to perch above and behind me for several minutes. Another time, at dusk, a great-horned owl perched on a nearby snag. Without a sound, the hawk left the nest and rammed the owl at full speed.