Dora and High Flying
I didn’t spend much time in Tompkins Square Park this evening, but saw a fledgling near Avenue A, two young hawks soaring over the Lower East Side and Dora on a church cross.
Father and Child
Tonight, Christo acted almost like it was late fall. He spend the evening in the park, casting a pellet, visited the flag pole and did some hunting. It was nice to spend time with him. One of the fledglings was also in the park and on nearby buildings. A nice evening, finally with some normal temperatures too.
Another Self-Caught Meal
This evening, a fledgling caught another Rock Pigeon and had a meal of it. While it was eating both parents, arrived and Christo, the male gave Dora a pigeon to eat. Humorously, the fledgling who had just eaten a whole pigeon, stole the pigeon from Dora.
Dry Ice
New York City has begun to experiment with Dry Ice (frozen CO2) as an alternative to using rat poisons in city parks. The technique has turned out to be very effective and as been used recently in a few parks with known Red-Tailed Hawk populations in Manhattan.
Articles about the program have appeared in the New York Daily News and on NY1. For years there has been tension between hawk lovers and rat haters, and this solution seems to be a wonderful alternative to rodenticide use, that works for everyone.
Kudos to those who wrote letters of complaint after the death of the hawk earlier this year downtown, and many, many thanks to the Department of Health and the Parks Department for finding a safer rat control solution.
Rock Pigeon For Dinner
Today we watched a fledgling do at least fifteen hunting runs before finally catching a Rock Pigeon in Tompkins Square Park. It was exciting to watch and may have been one of the fledglings first kills.
The hawk’s sibling hunted a different way. It stole the pigeon leftovers from its sibling!
High and Low
It looks like the fledglings at Tompkins Square Park are growing up and venturing farther and farther from the park. They’ve been venturing down to 4th Street and Avenue A, on churches and public housing. They’ve also been on the top of the Christodora Apartments frequently.
But there has still be at least one fledgling near the pool each day. But this might not last long. As July turns into August, the fledglings are going to get harder and harder to find.
