WKYT - Home - Headlines

Bird Dictating Construction Schedule

Video will be available shortly

A groundbreaking, held Tuesday, ushered in a new era for Fayette County schools. The soon-to-be built Liberty Elementary School will replace Julia R. Ewan.

The site is being prepared for construction, but it seems one of the residents isn't ready to leave home just yet. A red-tailed hawk has made her home high atop a tree on the site and she's not going anywhere until her babies are ready.

Construction crews left the tree alone when they noticed the nest. The mother hawk and her two new babies call the tree home. It's a good thing crews decided not to disturb the hawk. It could have cost them a pretty penny.

One worker says they could have been fined hundreds of thousands of dollars if the endangered birds had died.

Brian Perry, a naturalist at Raven Run Sanctuary, says the birds will normally return to the same nest year after year, but with all the construction these birds might not return. It could even disturb them so much that they leave before they're ready.

Red-tailed hawks are native to the area and good for the ecological balance of the region, but until her babies are ready to leave the nest, the mother bird is going to stay put and the new Liberty school will have to continue to work around her.

Officials are planning to leave the tree alone until the birds leave but if they don't leave, officials will have to redesign their plans and that could take a lot of time and be very expensive.


Comments are posted from viewers like you and do not always reflect the views of this station.
powered by Disqus

Current Conditions

Weather for Lexington, Kentucky
56° F
Partly Cloudy
Sat
64 38
Sun
71 48
Mon
76 55
Tue
84 62

Opinion

Do you feel safe travelling on Kentucky's bridges?

Yes
No
Never really thought about it.

Most Commented

powered by Disqus

Enter your number for a chance to win great prizes!
Message and data rates may apply
Refuse to Lose

Viewer Photos

Text Links

Premium reloading brass once fired

WKYT

2851 Winchester Rd. Lexington, Ky 40509 859-299-0411 - switchboard 859-299-2727 - newsroom
Gray Television, Inc. - Copyright © 2002-2013 - Designed by Gray Digital Media - Powered by Clickability
User Agent: CCBot/2.0 - 7404396