For the last few weeks I’ve been keeping track of a new Red-tailed Hawk pair in Sheep Meadow of Central Park. Most of us who knew about the pair decided to keep them under the radar while they got established. But a photograph was recently showed on the palemale.com site, so now that the secrets out I think it’s reasonable to share some photographs.
The southern part of Central Park has been a mystery this year. Sightings of two new hawks, plus Pale Male and Octavia in the southern part of the park have made it difficult to figure out what’s going on.
While I didn’t believe it at first, was there is strong evidence that Octavia may have been spending time with both males, so we may have had only three hawks.
Since Octavia has begun sitting on the nest uptown, observers have only seen a single hawk down at Central Park South. So, the question I’ve been trying to answer is does this hawk have a brooding mate in a nest we haven’t found or was what we assumed to be two pairs in late February and early March actually just three hawks?
I didn’t discover the answer on Wednesday but had fun trying!
Today was a nice day in Central Park. I had the two Red-tailed hawks trying to establish a nest on CPW, (now working on a nest on 322 CPW.) Then a juvenile Red-tailed Hawk on the American Museum of Natural History followed by Sharp-shinned Hawk in the Evodia Field.
My next stop was Fifth Avenue, where Octavia is now brooding. Pale Male was tending to the nest (rearranging twigs as is his habit) and she returned to the nest.
A quick walk down to Central Park South uncovered one Red-tailed hawk there. Seven hawks, not too bad for a brief afternoon visit to the park.
There looks to be some question as to whether the Plaza Hotel pair might be Pale Male and Octavia building a secondary nest.
Looking at the photographs I’ve taken over the last two days, these look like a new pair to my eyes. Both the male and female look different than Pale Male and Octavia.
(Certainly, this pair has ventured up to Pale Male’s territory over the last few weeks and it might be one of the Central Park South hawks that was mistaken for Octavia up north. This would explain matching field marks.)
The Plaza Hotel pair also have a nest on the Crown Building. It is in a better location from the Plaza, but sadly out of view from the street. I hope they nest on the Plaza, but if they don’t we won’t be able to see the eyasses for some time.
The Central Park South pair copulated on the Plaza Hotel late this afternoon. The female was about twenty feet from the nest, and the male flew in and copulated with her. He quickly left and flew due west. She followed at dusk about twenty minutes later. I walked over in the general direction they flew, but didn’t find either of the hawk’s roosts for the evening.
The Roger Paw Blog reported on January 9th that a new Red-tailed Hawk nest is being established on The Plaza Hotel at Central Park South.
This evening, at dusk while I was watching two Black Crowned Night Herons (one adult and one immature), and hundreds of Common Grackles come home to roost, I saw one the Red-tails at the nest site. The Red-tailed Hawk stayed on the nest for about ten minutes and then went off to roost.
Hats off to the Roger Paw Blog for such excellent reporting! Finding a new nest site, this early in the season, is hard work.
