More than any other nest I’ve seen, the male of the Washington Square Park nest loves to bring paper to his nest. Today it was a a magazine or newspaper page.
It was interesting that the female didn’t leave nest but stayed as the paper was put into the nest.
I’m looking forward to the 2015 Red-tailed Hawk nest hatches in Central and Morningside Parks. We have three confirmed nests in Central Park, a pair seen frequently in the NE section of the Central Park, and our Cathedral hawks have a new nest location exposed to the elements.
With any new season, I look forward to discovering new aspects of urban Red-tailed Hawk behavior.
Three Central Park nests is fantastic news this year. But one has to wonder about locations and why these three nests are so close together? Do these three Red-tailed hawk pairs benefit by having protected flanks from the other pairs? Does this outweigh any issues over food contention, etc.? Or did the new nest locations have nothing to do with the other nest locations? It will be interesting to see when other raptor species fly over the park, if the Red-tailed Hawks work together to escort them away. And which pair will tale over the Locust Grove.
The Beresford Apartment nest will have new fledglings who will have to cross Central Park West to end up in Central Park or maybe even Teddy Roosevelt Park. Which buildings will they perch on the first few weeks? The Museum of Natural History? Or like many Red-tails, will they try to get as high as possible the first week and end up back on the Beresford? Where will the parents take them to hunt? South to the calm lawn south of The Yard? Or up North?
How will the exposed nest do at the Cathedral of Saint John? Will it be as productive as St. Andrew had been?
And is there a forth pair nesting near the park? Almost all of the experienced hawk watchers in Central Park saw a pair of hawks all winter around the Conservatory Garden. In April, many of us have seen a single hawk in the park, who flies over to Madison Avenue between 100th to 106th. Is there a nest tucked away a block from the park or in the public housing east of Madison?
I’m looking forward to learning more about Red-tailed Hawks this season. How fantastic is it that one of the best places to study Red-tailed Hawks is in the middle of Big Apple! New York City truly is one hell of a town.
I thought I’d spend some time where it all began, Pale Male’s nest on Fifth Avenue this afternoon. It was uneventful with Pale Male giving Octavia a break just before he went off to roost.
Octavia is an impatient hawk. She leaves the nest as soon as she sees Pale Male nearby. She doesn’t wait for him land on the nest like other females in the city due. It’s kind of funny, as though she’s saying “I’ve been waiting, where have you been?”
I went down to Bryant Park to look at the Chuck Will’s-widow at night to see if I could take pictures of it feeding. I did get to see it but it was only perching while I visited. At least it was awake!
The leaves are restricting the viewing angles for the Sheep Meadow nest, so I took what small window I had left from the south to take some portraits of the brooding female this afternoon.
I spent about an hour watching the Beresford nest this afternoon. Not much happened while I was there. The only excitement was a brief visit by an American Kestrel.
