After my visit to see the new nest on Lexington Avenue, I went to Central Park. I saw both Octavia and Pale Male on the north side of the Met as soon as I arrived. Octavia quickly went south, and Pale Male went to his usual pre-bed time hunting grounds near the reservoir’s south gate house. It was great to see both of them so easily.
There was a tweet about a new nest at 95th and Lexington Avenue on Twitter this week, so I went to check it out today. The pair looks to be the same ones that nested at 100th and Third Avenue last year. It looks like a better location. It’s higher and has better views than the old nest. Unfortunately, it is across the street from a park that just was treated with rodenticides.
As the days grow longer, Red-tailed Hawk couples who in the fall may have spent much of their time apart, spend more and more time together. Today, the Tompkins Square Park spent much of the after noon close to each other. A sign nesting season is right around the corner.
One of the hawks caught a pigeon on Avenue B around 12th Street. I was surprised the kill was so far north. After eating much of the pigeon, it shared the leftovers with its mate.
I explored the SE section of Central Park on Saturday. My first stop was The Pond, where right next to the Plaza Hotel some fun birds for the winter are a Wood Duck, Northern Pintail, and a Great Blue Heron. Then it was off to see how the Red-headed Woodpecker was doing. While I was on my way, I spotted a young Red-tailed hawk. A nice afternoon of birding.
I had a quiet afternoon with one of the adult Red-tailed Hawks in Washington Square Park this afternoon. The hawk spent at least an hour on top of 1 Fifth Avenue before coming down to hunt in the rain in the NW corner of the park. It caught a small rodent, and looked to be on the lookout for a second snack before going to roost. It started raining too hard for me to see how things turned out.
The birding community has long supported citizen science by reporting bird sightings to scientists. In our digital world, the most popular system for reporting bird sightings is run by Cornell Labs, ebird.org.
Sightings can be recored via the web or by using an iOS or Android phone app. It’s a fantastic system for reporting bird sightings, keeping your “life list” and finding out what birds have been seen in a specific area.
Unfortunately, the Ross’s Gull was taken by a Peregrine Falcon this last Saturday, resulting in an eBirds.org checklist by Peter Sole that will go down as one of the most classic checklists ever.