Category: Other Red-tailed Hawks

Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey, Other Birds, Other Red-tailed Hawks

Not What I Was Looking For…

I went into Central Park on Saturday hoping to find a Cooper’s Hawk, take a few pictures of Pale Male and then go off to the Monk Parakeets on Amsterdam Avenue.

As often happens when birding, I ended up with a different set of observations.

This American Kestrel was on the Met.  I missed the Cooper’s Hawk, which I found out from other birders had spent an hour in the Tupelo tree in the Ramble.
The Reservoir had a number of ducks, including two pairs of Hooded Mergansers.
American Coot
Pied-billed Grebe
Pied-billed Grebe
I then went off to 103rd and Amsterdam.  No sign of the Parakeets, who seem to have completed their nest/roost.  I suspect that they’ll be harder to spot now, since they’re going to spend more time exploring the neighborhood now that the nest is done.
Having struck out with the Parakeets, I went to the The Pool and the Loch in Central Park.  The Pool was quiet and partially frozen over.  In the Loch, I heard a group of Blue Jays.  They were aggressively after this juvenile Red-tailed Hawk.  There are a number of young hawks in the city this fall.  One is in Tompkins Square Park, which someone has given a very complicated Myspace page.
Attacking Blue Jay in the lower right.
This young hawk moved from tree to tree moving west to the Pond and then up to the Great Hill.  It made a number of half hearted hunting attempts along the way.
Good luck making it through your first winter.
Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey, Other Red-tailed Hawks, Southern Central Park Red-tailed Hawks

Highbridge Park, Broadway Bridge and Columbus Circle

James O’Brien (yojimbot.blogspot.com) hosted a Harlem and Washington Heights bird watching walk on Sunday.

From his 145th Street apartment, we could see this Red-tailed Hawk on an apartment building to the south, who…
…then flew southwest out of sight.
We walked through Highbridge park on the upper path.  We saw a Red-tail or two in the distance but unlike our previous trip, no Cooper’s Hawks or American Kestrels.

We then took a brief subway ride to Broadway Bridge, which is a car and subway draw bridge at the upper end of Manhattan.  The bridge is home to two Peregrine Falcons.

Just after we arrived the pair of Peregrine Falcons hassled a Red-tailed Hawk perched on top of an apartment building just east of the Marble Hill train station.  This hawk may be one of the Inwood Hill Park Red-tails.
The Red-tailed Hawk did all it could to puff up and look as big possible.
Soon the Peregrines moved out of sight to the north.
The Red-tail reappeared from the southeast before flying out of sight.  For a period of time it appeared to have a smaller bird pursuing it, possibly a Kestrel.

On my way home, I got off the 1 train at Columbus Circle and looked for the Central Park South hawks.  One of them was on a building between 8th and 9th Avenues on 58th Street.

Soon a second hawk appeared and both of them flew around Columbus Circle.
They both landed on a corner of the Time Warner building.
They flew between the Time Warner, Trump International and the new Zeckendorf buildings.
All in all, it was a great day for raptor watching.
927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks, Other Red-tailed Hawks

Marathon Sunday

On Marathon Sunday, I came into a park full of runners.  The marathon route goes right through Pale Male and Lola’s territory.

I walked around the Great Lawn and saw a hawk skim just above ground level from the center of the lawn to the eastern edge.  The hawk grabbed a small bird and then jumped into a low branch of a small tree between two baseball diamonds.  The bird was the immature hawk that Lola has been tolerating and to some observers, has even been playing with.

The immature Red-tailed Hawk just after catching a bird on the east side of the Great Lawn.
Note the immature’s stripped tail rather than a mature’s solid red tail.
The immature also has a very light eye color, which will darken over time.
Just after the immature Red-tailed Hawk finished eating, Pale Male came in to chase it away.
Pale Male landed in a tree on the west side of the Great Lawn and the immature hawk went northwest out of sight.
Pale Male preens his feathers.
The fluffed up look of a cold day.
After looking for the immature hawks perch without success, I returned to the Great Lawn to discover Pale Male had moved to the East Pinetum.
Were he settled into a tree that was to be his roost for the evening.
927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks, Other Red-tailed Hawks, Southern Central Park Red-tailed Hawks, St. John/Columbia Red-tailed Hawks

Fordham Hawks make the tree to building nest move

Rob Jett reports on his excellent The City Birder blog, that the Fordham Campus Red-tailed Hawks have made the move from tree nesting to building nesting.

This makes the fourth New York City building nest I’ve heard reports of:

Fifth Avenue
Bronx Fire Escape (2004) (Daily News, NYC DEP)
Central Park South
Fordham Campus

Update: I forgot about the St. John the Divine (200?-?) nest, which would make five.  If you know of other building nests in NYC, please leave a comment.