Twelve miles today on my usual hawk watching route, but today's ride was sad. Our three beautiful red tailed hawk babies perished yesterday when high winds destroyed their nest. Mom and Dad hawk are fine.

We had worried about their nest being so exposed, but after it survived two major storms I thought we were okay. The babies were just a few weeks from fledging.

I spent a few minutes staring at the empty spot in the sweet gum tree where the nest used to be.