Urban Hawks

June 4, 2019December 18, 2020Washington Sq. Red-tailed Hawks

Mystery Hawk at Washington Square Park

I went to see the three eyasses on the nest at Washington Square Park and got a surprise. Two adult hawks were in the park. One I hadn’t seen before on the Education Building (rusted beam next to the hawk) and the Adult Female on One Fifth Avenue. They both flew around and the Adult female didn’t seem happy with the intruder.

The three eyasses could start fledging later this week. The photographs always show two, but there was often one hiding in either corner of the nest.

June 4, 2019December 17, 2020Tompkins Square Red-tailed Hawks

Sole Survivor

It looks like Tompkins Square Park lost an eyass sometime in the last few days. Laura Goggin broke the news on her blog on Friday. I was out of town over the weekend, but made it down to the park to confirm the bad news.

Sadly, it looks like Laura made the right call. Searches of nearby branches and trees yielded no early fledgling. I heard an American Robin making alarm calls, but the robin had found one of the parents on a western branch of the nest tree about 15 feet from the nest.

June 3, 2019December 15, 2020Red-tailed Hawk Nest Updates

2019 Manhattan Red-tailed Hawk Nest Update 11

Updates on two nests:

Laura Goggin reports on her blog that it looks like the Tompkins Square Park nest appears to have lost one eyass.
Jessica Ancker reports that a second eyass has been observed in the Inwood Hill nest.

We should see our first fledges later this week. They always seem to be around the Puerto Rican Day Parade which is on Sunday.

May 29, 2019December 17, 2020Other Birds

Warbling Vireo Nest II

The Warbling Vireo nest in The Ramble of Central Park is in use now. I captured video and audio this afternoon of what is most likely the male on the nest. Lovely singing!

May 28, 2019December 18, 2020Washington Sq. Red-tailed Hawks

Washington Square Park

With the death of the male, the Washington Square Park nest has a single adult female and three eyasses. The mother is keeping up with the extra duties and the eyasses are growing at a normal pace. Today, I caught up with the family. I saw the mother preening and then just perching most of the time on the southwest corner of the Silver Building a block from the nest. In the early afternoon, the mother fed they eyasses.

May 26, 2019December 27, 2020Eagles, Falcons, Hawks and Osprey, Other Birds

Governors Island

Governors Island is now open after dark on Fridays and Saturdays, so I went in search of bats on Saturday. I saw and recorded echolocations from two Eastern Red Bats at Nolan Park around 8:15-8:45 p.m.

Earlier in the daylight, I enjoyed views of the Yellow Crowned Night Heron nest, Killdeer and Common Terns. I was also able to see the three young Peregrine Falcons and their mother at 55 Water Street.

The Common Terns nest on two of the piers, Lima and Tango. NYC Audubon is encouraging Common Terns to nest on the Lima Pier this year and has put up three decoys. It took me awhile to realize there were decoys and I had to subtract three Terns from my eBirds checklist.

They piers are named after their shapes, L, T and Y, which in the NATO alphabet become, Lima, Tango and Yankee. The Yankee pier, which now only is half a Y, is in active use by the Brooklyn bound ferry.

In addition to the birds on Memorial Day weekend, there was a military ship being guarded by the Coast Guard across Buttermilk Channel and a few military plane and helicopter flyovers.