Urban Hawks

I only got to see one visit to the nest by Octavia and then got to see Pale Male on a balcony a few blocks north of the nest building tonight.  But it was nice to see both of them even though there wasn’t much action.

While I haven’t seen Pale Male and Octavia copulate this season, they’ve been spending time together, both have been working on the nest, and chasing out intruders into their territory.  It’s so nice for another year of hawk nesting to begin once again.

The week of Valentine’s Day is the unofficial start of hawk watching season in New York City.  Hawks who have been doing minor nest refurbishment since January, now start to copulate and getting ready for egg laying in mid to late late March.  I gave a talk on Pale Male last year and thought it might be helpful to share some of the slides as a primer on what is going to happen over the next six months.

I encourage anyone who hasn’t watched a Red-tailed Hawk nest to do so this year.  It’s incredibly enjoyable.  The “hawk bench”, were the best viewing is from, is just next to the Hans Christian Andersen statue on the west side of the Model Boat Pond. And if you aren’t near the Fifth Avenue nest, there are many alternative nests to choose from in New York, as well as may other locations throughout the country.

Monday’s hawk watching wasn’t that successful.  I only had a brief glimpse of Octavia, Pale Male’s mate on the Carlyle Hotel in the afternoon.

I had a brief view of Octavia on the nest before she flew off at dusk.  I’m looking forward to watching them for another year!