Octavia, the female of the 927 Fifth Avenue nest was on the “Woody” building one block north of the nest late on Friday afternoon. (Woody Alan no longer lives in the Woody building, by the way.) Octavia was in to rush to leave, but eventually left and perched on a window railing at 70th and Fifth Avenue, which faces north and overlooks The Frick Collection’s garden.
I caught up with a Black-crowned Night Heron preening on The Pond, in the SW corner of Central Park on Thursday.
Pale Male was on the “Linda Building” at 73rd and then his nest on Sunday afternoon. This year was unusual in that Pale Male and Octavia weren’t seen copulating in the spring by any of the regular hawk watchers. Their nest failed this year, too. It will be interesting to see what happens next year.
The Pond in the southeastern corner of Central Park had a Green Heron on Sunday. It was fishing for minnows when I found it on the far shore of the southwest corner of the pond. Fall migration has begun slowly in the park. Number are still very low, but we’re getting interesting birds. The highlights of the day for me were a Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Canada Warbler, two Northern Waterthrushs, American Redstart, Belted Kingfisher, Great Egret and Baltimore Oriole.
This evening I was lucky enough to find Pale Male and watch him explore the East Pinetum of Central Park. He caught a pigeon and after a few flights, ended up eating it for about 3o minutes before being interrupted by an aggressive Gray Squirrel, which forced him to move to another tree.
(There are some pompous and misogynistic birders on Twitter and Facebook who have recently decided to immediately respond to the posting of any photograph or video of Pale Male, especially those taken by a women, with comments like “It can’t still be Pale Male, it must be one of his offspring.”
The comments are based on the belief that a Red-tailed hawk can’t be older than around 30 years. However, the statements offer no proof that Pale Male has been replaced by another hawk, and generally have a tone that implies that the female photographer isn’t a “real birder”, but a “hawk watcher inclined to anthropomorphize”. While many hawk nests go through numerous changes of mates, generally unnoticed by observers, for the 14 years I’ve watched Pale Male he remains the same bird with exactly the same habits and perches.
I missed his early days in the park. There are only a handful of birders who have followed Pale Male since he arrived in the park. I know most of them and they all are convinced Pale Male is still the original bird that arrived years ago.
I also find it incredible that these folks say that Pale Male might have be replaced by one of his offspring. Natal dispersal is incredibly far for Red-tailed Hawks, up to 1,000 miles. And what hawk is going to mate with its mother? When the time comes for 927 Fifth Avenue to get a new male, it won’t be one of Pale Male’s offspring. Anyone who thinks otherwise clearly doesn’t understand raptor biology.
So, if you really believe Pale Male is Pale Male II, offer some hard proof. Otherwise, don’t insult the many wonderful female photographers in the park every time they label a photograph of the adult male from the 927 Fifth Avenue nest, Pale Male.)
A young Adult Red-tailed Hawk was hanging around the Evodia Field in Central Park’s Ramble on Tuesday afternoon. As fall migration heats up, we should see more and more visitors in Central Park. A Northern Flicker, American Robins and a Gray Squirrel can be heard on the video’s soundtrack.
