Young Red-tailed Hawk on Parks Department Offices
A young Red-tailed Hawk was eating a small bird on the roof of the building at 105th and Fifth Avenue as I was leaving the Conservatory Gardens of Central Park on Wednesday.
Category: Other Red-tailed Hawks
Bats and a Red-tailed Hawk
I stopped by Central Park’s Pond on my way home. The Pond is located just north of the Plaza Hotel at the south east end of the park. The usual suspects were there, including a Wood Duck, a Black-crowned Night Heron, Mallards and Canada Geese, plus the hundreds of Common Grackles coming home to roost in the trees surrounding the Pulitzer Fountain of Grand Army Plaza.
What I didn’t expect to find were two Eastern-Red Bats feeding at around 6 p.m. Usually, I need to rely on my Echo Meter Touch to identify my bats, but these were clearly Eastern-Red Bats just by watching them. I did my best to get some pictures without flash in the low light.
After sunset, a Red-tailed Hawk flew around the Pond and the buildings on Central Park South. I suspect one of the adults we saw bringing nesting materials to Crown Building earlier this year. These hawks continue to be a mystery, but it was good to see they’re still around.
Randalls Island
I finally had time to go out to Randalls Island and see this year’s nest. There seem to be two eyasses this year. The nest is in the lights of Field 10, just north of the stadium.
Juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk, Peregrine Falcon, Two Adult Red-Tailed Hawks
I started my raptor watching in the North Woods and then worked my way around the reservoir. My first raptor was a Juvenile Red-Tailed Hawk at the Wildflower meadow, who then flew around the Compost Heap. Then it was off to the reservoir, where a Peregrine Falcon has been seen for the last few days near the North Gate House. Then after looking at the nice selection of waterfowl using the open areas of reservoir, I ran into two adult hawks at the South Gate House. By then it was too dark to I.D. the hawks, but it looked like one of them was an intruder and the other was either Pale Male or Octavia.
Pale Male and Juvenile Hawk
Both Pale Male and Octavia are doing just fine in the cold. Both have been spotted numerous times over the long weekend. I got a few pictures of Pale Male on Saturday. Today, the hawk of my visit was a young hawk in the area of the Ramble called The Oven. This bird didn’t get any not respect from numerous Squirrels and Blue Jays.
Central Park
Last Friday, I tried to find the fledglings from the Fifth Avenue nest but came up short. I did run into a young adult Red-tailed Hawk in the Ramble. It was very light colored like Pale Male but had very light eye color.
