Octavia
I got a very, very brief look at Octavia at the base of Cedar Hill on Sunday. I’ve been having trouble figuring out her habits, so it was nice to find her.
Category: 927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks
Octavia on 2 East 70th
On Labor Day, Octavia, Pale Male’s current mate was perched on the north side of 2 East 70th Street. The location gave her a good view up Fifth Avenue.
I always thought 72nd Street was the “line in the sand” between the 5th Avenue and the Sheep Meadow pair, but the borders are turning out to be more complicated. Octavia is regularly south of 72nd Street, and the Sheep Meadow fledglings regularly go north of 72nd Street on either side of Bethesda Fountain.
Red and Green
It’s ironic, given that I’m Red/Green Colorblind, that my two good birds of the day on Saturday were a Red-tailed Hawk and Green Heron.
The Red-tailed Hawk was the same bird I saw Friday. It was again perched on a window railing of 2 East 70th Street.
The Green Heron was in a shallow area of the The Pond north of Gapstow bridge. These mudflat areas are import to wading birds, but they’re constantly being removed by the Central Park Conservancy. The original landscaping of the park had water bodies with clean sculpted edges, which removed the transitional areas of marsh and mud needed by many birds. Luckily, natural erosion does a great job of bringing these mudflats back!
At about 6:56 on the video is a great shot of the Green Heron “licking its lips”.
Two East 70th Street
I’ve been corrected by a number of fellow hawk watchers, who identified this hawk as Pale Male’s mate, Octavia. Wow! I didn’t expect her this far south.
Given the mess at the bottom of the window frame, this is a popular spot!
Where Are You?
Starting in late July, hawk watching in New York City becomes much harder. Fledglings, who had been yelling for food, are now quiet having learned to hunt. Warm weather has the hawks relaxing and staying put, making them harder to spot. And everyone, young and old have dispersed to wider and wider areas. Gone are those nice spots the families came to for meals together at regular hours!
So on Saturday, I had my first hawk free day of the summer. I didn’t pick up a single hawk on a trip through Central Park.
This Sunday, I did find two hawks however. Pale Male up at 86th and Fifth Avenue, and one of the Sheep Meadow fledglings at The Mall.
Fifth Avenue Mystery
I got to see one of the fledglings for over two hours around the Obelisk (sometimes referred to Cleopatra’s Needle), west of the Met. This was fun since there were lots of good looks at the bird.
However, the mystery of the day was a large adult Red-tailed Hawk, who wasn’t Pale Male or Ocativa, who showed up nearby. This coupled with the rescue of a young hawk around the tennis courts at 96th Street last week had hawk watchers wondering.
Could the young hawk could have been from an unknown nest of the pair that tired to nest along CPW these last two years? And could the adult hawk we saw be the parent of this youngster, investigating the cries from Pale Male and Ocatavia’s children, in case they were the parent’s missing fledgling?
I don’t think we’ll ever know but it makes a great story!
Update: It looks like the youngster that was picked up at the tennis courts is most likely one of the Cathedral fledglings, which makes sense given their exposure to Frounce. So, this extra adult’s appearance may have not explanation.
