Ever since a family of red-tailed hawks chose North Atlanta High School as their nesting site, they’ve become the talk of the school.
The hawk parents established their nest during the past winter, selecting the eighth floor of the high school, right outside the physics classroom. Their presence immediately captivated the hearts and attention of the entire school community. “The kids are really excited about it,” remarked Lori McCall, the school’s library media specialist.
In a collective decision, the students named the mother hawk Trina and the father Trick Daddy. McCall expressed her delight in witnessing even students who typically maintain a “serious” or “tough” exterior become enthralled by wildlife.
“It’s been something that’s united us… Everybody’s been watching. Everybody’s excited,” McCall expressed.
The hawk family became a source of fascination for students, teachers, and staff alike — everyone wanted to witness their daily activities. To accommodate this interest, a recent graduate of North Atlanta High who works with the AV department devised a way to set up a 24/7 hawk livestream.
Through the livestream, the school community had the opportunity to observe Trina and Trick Daddy as they tended to their eggs, witnessed the hatching of their babies, and observed the growth of the newborn hawks into fuzzy adolescent birds. Viewers even learned to distinguish between the male and female hawks, noting Trina’s larger size compared to Trick Daddy as a female hawk.
“After they finish their teaching, [teachers pull] up the hawk cam because it’s relaxing for the kids,” McCall shared.
McCall’s initiative to share the livestream on social media garnered attention from other schools, spreading the word about the North Atlanta High hawks. An elementary school teacher from North Carolina reached out to McCall, expressing how much her students enjoyed watching the livestream. They were so captivated by the hawks that they even created drawings of them.
As the time approaches for the young hawks to leave their nest, McCall remains optimistic about the future. She hopes that if the first batch of babies thrive, they will return year after year, allowing the school community to continue observing and learning from them through the livestream.