Urban Hawks

May 17, 2015December 24, 2020927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks

FIfth Avenue Fun

Nests can be difficult to watch. Eyasses can be sleeping or too young to see, but today at the model boat pond the bench had lots of afternoon action. Active youngsters, still fluffy but large enough to see doing all kinds of things on the nest. If you haven’t seen them yet, and are nearby, grab you binoculars and go!

The mother brought in some leaves today. Perfect for helping with a messy nest.

The opening shots of Pale Male and Octavia have them preched on the Carlyle Hotel’s roof at 76th and Madison.

May 15, 2015December 24, 2020Southern Central Park Red-tailed Hawks

Trio at Sheep Meadow

If I counted properly, we have three eyasses in the Sheep Meadow nest this year. They were tough to see. Their mother left unattended for a good period and then returned to a perch above them kept an eye on them for over an hour before returning to the nest. She was also keeping an eye on the workers building a huge stage and sound systems for the AIDS Walk on Sunday.

May 13, 2015December 24, 2020927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks

Good News and Bad

The new nest at the Beresford Apartments and the relocated nest at St. John the Divine both seem to have failed this year. We’ll see if either pair tries to have a second clutch.

On the other hand, hawks have been seen with nesting material on The San Remo and a fire escape at 100th and Third Avenue. So, we could be in for some late surprises this year.

The Fifth Avenue nest now has three very visible eyasses. One’s a bit of a bully and they can now move around the nest with ease.

May 12, 2015Washington Sq. Red-tailed Hawks

Livestream Update

Today, I worked on testing my new live broadcasting setup. The technology is maturing and I hope to be able to do weekly broadcasts. My Livestream page is livestream.com/urbanhawks. Follow me to be notified of broadcasts.

This year my live broadcast technology stack includes:

Blackmagic Production Camera 4K EF
Røde Stereo Microphone
Various Canon Lenses and teleconverters, including a 600mm L II f/4 lens
ikan V-mount Batteries and Switronix Jetpack for Power
Teradek Vidiu Encoder with a SDI to HDMI converter
Teradek Live:Air iPad Production Suite running on an iPad Mini 3
iPhone 6 for LTE G4 connectivity and a mobile WiFi network

Think of all this as a mobile news van shrunk down to the size of a backpack.

May 12, 2015December 24, 2020Washington Sq. Red-tailed Hawks

Two Eyasses

It’s almost certain we have only two eyasses at Washington Square Park this year. Here are some more pictures and video of them…

May 11, 2015December 24, 2020Washington Sq. Red-tailed Hawks

Washington Square Park

On a hot day, the eyasses seemed to be more interested in sleeping than anything else. I didn’t get good video or stills, nor did I solve the riddle of how many eggs hatched (most likely only two of the three eggs). But I did get a sunburn. Hopefully, I’ll have better luck later in the week.