Category: Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey

86th and WEA Peregrine Falcons, Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey

86th and West End Peregrine Falcons

The 86th and West End Peregrine Falcon’s nesting area has been found on the SW tower of the St. Paul & St. Andrew United Methodist Church. There are four eyasses (young falcons) on the tower.

The nesting area is on a large flat area that looks to have once had a skylight inside, which is now covered with roofing paper, and a ledge that wraps around the outside. The eyasses have a huge area to explore. On the outer edge there is netting to keep loose stone from falling to the street. This netting is acting as a guardrail for the eyasses. The large covered area allows the eyasses to stay dry in the rain.

It isn’t clear where on this large area the scrape (falcons make a shallow bowl in gravel as a nesting area) was located. Something to figure out in 2023.

The adult female is the same one as last year, with the 77 over BV, black over green with white lettering band. She was born on the Du Bois Library, at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and banded that year, in 2019.

I was very windy this afternoon, which bounced my camera all over the place, so the quality of the images isn’t what I would have liked. However, I was able to salvage some footage, and some stills.

The eyasses are exploring the flat area under the open arches in this photograph. They can sometimes be seen from the street at the first eastbound stop of the M86 bus at 86th Street and Broadway.
Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey, Extralimital

Devil’s Slide Peregrine Falcons

I’m in California visiting family for Holy Week, and got to see chicks in the Peregrine Falcon nest along the California coast, just south of San Francisco at Devil’s slide. A new camera, which I don’t fully know how to use and a small lens made it hard to photograph them, but I did get some images.

The first image is of Egg Rock, home to a rookery of Common Murres, which the Peregrines raid to feed their young.

Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey, General News

CBS Mornings

Michael George produced a wonderful piece for CBS Mornings, that was aired nationally today. It was a long piece about the reintroduction of Bald Eagles in New York City and featured Ranger Rob Mastrianni and rehabber Bobby Horvath. I contributed a few seconds of video to the story.

I was impressed that story of Rover’s visits to Central Park, which could have been just a brief sensationalized report, was instead a much deeper dive into why Bald Eagles are making a come back in New York City. They are returning due to the hard work of local rehabbers, and conservation employees of the city, state and national governments.

Kudos to Michael George for such a great report.

Click on the image to watch the clip. (CBS adds an advertisement before the clip.)
86th and WEA Peregrine Falcons, Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey, Owls

Sunday Snow Storm

On a snowy day, made my first stop Riverside Drive and 86th Street to see the Peregrine Falcons who have been perching on the Normandy. They were both there, but also a wonderful American Kestrel who was camped out in from of two bushed with about 40 White-throated Sparrows and House Sparrows. The Peregrines came and left, and in the late afternoon both moved to West End Avenue.

I then went to Central Park, making a brief visit to the Reservoir and then to see the Great Horned Owl that has been in the park. It’s important to see and owl on SuperB Owl Sunday.

Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey

Bald Eagle

I went to the reservoir to see what gulls I could see. I did see an all white gull, which most likely was an Iceland Gull, but there were very few gulls on the ice. The Bald Eagle appeared mid-afternoon and after making two loops around the reservoir dropped to the ice, where what looked like a half-eaten gull was located. It ate some of the gull and stayed for about 10 minutes.