Check into room 422 at the Hampton Inn and Suites on Bay Street and you get more than the usual view.
“It’s the hawk room,” said front desk clerk Lavernitra Roberson.
A pair of red-tailed hawks built its nest on the ledge just outside the room, hatched its two babies just before St. Patrick’s Day and have been dutifully tending to them since. Guests have been checking in and out of the room the whole time. The hawks don’t seem to mind. Guests have joked they should be charged more for the nature show.
Valet Michael Robinson, who like many of the staffers is thrilled to have the big birds so nearby, checks on the raptors regularly. Judging from what he saw this month, rabbit and squirrel are the hawk’s version of room service. On Friday, it looked like the one young hawk still in the nest had lunched on pigeon.
Red-tailed hawks are common in the Savannah area, said Dot Bambach, an avid birder and member of the Ogeechee Audubon Society. They’re known to nest on tall buildings and feast on the rodents attracted to Dumpsters.
“It’s a hawk that’s adapted well to civilization,” she said.
This particular pair has nearby squares to hunt in, as well as a straight shot across the river to a wooded area of Hutchinson Island.
“It’s a really good spot for them,” said Bambach as she listed all the nearby hunting opportunities.
You don’t have to be a hotel guest to enjoy the hawks. Their nest is visible from the street. Tom Havens, a civil engineer whose office on Factors’ Walk faces the Hampton Inn, noticed it Friday morning as he waited for the light at Abercorn and Bay streets. On the seventh floor building cornice he saw sticks hanging over the ledge. He could see a hawk moving in the nest, too.
For Havens, it’s a new chapter in his urban hawk watching. Last year he found a hawk eating a pigeon on the windshield of his car, which he’d parked in a nearby garage.
“Blood and feathers everywhere, but I was happy to see a wildlife element downtown,” he said.
Juvie ready to fledge
Savannah Now
